My Babysitter's A Vampire - Season 2
by CarolClifford22
Summary: Her summer started in Whitechapel, a million miles away from her old town. She'd find friendship, a relationship and things she didn't know existed there. But what's going to happen when her new babysitting job gives her way more than she signed up for?
1. Season Two: Episode Guide

**My Babysitter's A Vampire Episode Guide**

 **(Season 2)**

 **Welcome Back, Dusker:** Carol and Analis are new to White Chapel high, but they realize quite quickly that it's not your average high school. Ethan, Benny and the gang are hiding secrets and there's a new girl that has Ethan acting stranger than usual. It's pretty obvious that something's going on, but no one is filling either of the girls in on it. Could this be the end of a newly budded friendship?

 **Say You'll Be Maztak:** There's a new substitute teacher in White Chapel, but she's not like any other sub they've had before. As if things weren't weird enough, Benny has turned Analis into a boy. Leaving Carol on her own, until Erica and Sarah learn to let their guards down around her. With all the boys under the new substitute's spell, it's up to the girls of White Chapel to save it.

 **Fanged and Furious:** Things with Rory and Carol are starting to heat up in their relationship. But is it going to last after an incident leaves her in bandages? With Ethan getting his learner's permit, he looks for a new car to practice with. But his new car seems to be running down students in the Bruner family. Can the gang figure out how to stop it before the family is wiped out?

 **Flushed:** People are going missing in White Chapel and there's something wrong with the water. The gang quickly realizes that there's something living in the town's drain system. With Analis and Carol as witnesses to this new threat, things are getting even riskier. Hopefully Rory can explain what's going on before more citizens go missing.

 **Jockenstein:** Things are looking up for Benny and Ethan as they're added to White Chapel's hockey team. Analis and Carol take all this down time from weird mishaps to bake and catch up. Carol is getting more and more stressed as Rory continues to evade her. Could their relationship finally be over? Is the new guy Carol meets a threat to their unstable relationship? Or is he a new friend to her in this time of distress. Things are also heating up for Sarah as new thefts of dead remains are being tracked and she's looking like the culprit.

 **Mirror/rorriM:** For the first time, things are calm in White Chapel. The gang uses this spare time to join the school play, with Sarah and the new foreign exchange student as the leading roles. Analis and Benny have their first major fight and refuse to talk to one another. Carol and Ethan are working backstage with Benny and Analis, but weird things start happening with the mirror in the dressing room. With everyone trying to get this play going and keeping the weird on lock down, it's hard to keep track of where everyone's head is at. Will they figure it out before opening night? Or will the new social media star Pranksy steal the show?

 **Village of Darned:** It's Moleo season! The town of White Chapel are losing their heads over these tiny donuts and Jane can't seem to resist her temptations long enough to sell them. Ethan's put on babysitting duty for a pair of boys who are their own kind of trouble. Sarah and Erica are put on a buddy system with the recent vampire disappearances. Within the first few days almost the entire town is gone. All adults are gone and the children are in some sort of trance like state of mind. With nothing to eat, Sarah and Erica are weak and irritable. Is Rory and Carol's relationship in jeopardy too? Or will they get even closer?

 **Hottie Ho Tep:** While on a class field trip to a history museum, Benny steals the mummy's placenta. Now the mummy walks among the students of White Chapel high and is drawn to Sarah. She's completely smitten over him and he's rubbing Ethan the wrong way. Carol and Rory are at a standstill as he continues to mummify animals he finds, against her wishes. Benny and Ethan look up everything they can to send the mummy back to where he belongs, before something should happen to Sarah.

 **Siren Song:** White Chapel high is holding a talent show. A new voice is causing massive fights between the student body. As Carol and Analis get first hand experience with her, they realize she's going to use her power on opening night. Ethan and Benny try to find out what she might be and how they can defeat her. Analis and Carol have difficulty remembering the altercation between them and the new girl. Could this cause problems for the group later on?

 **Halloweird:** Erica, Rory and Sarah are all invited to a vampire party for the season. But Sarah will be babysitting Ethan and Jane instead, so Ethan throws a party for her. Benny and Rory tag team to try and get Carol and Analis to dress up in sexy costumes as couples. But fail as they both deny and then the boys are too busy to try and redeem themselves. Rory is missing throughout most of the day and when he is there, he's not the same. He's wearing a mask that's given him the power to turn people into their costumes. An ancient wizard is the only one to free Rory of the mask, how is the group going to get in touch with one?

 **Independence Daze:** Benny, Sarah and Ethan are all thrown in their own private dimensions. The trio have to find a way to get out of them and join forces to fight their fears. Analis finds herself in her own private dimension, with her own fear to conquer. Rory, Erica and Carol are in real time at school. Carol has to listen more closely to what her friend says than usual, but will Analis' actions cause complications for them both? With Rory, Erica and Carol being the only ones in the real world, it's their job to work together to save their friends. The three have to help the others return to their dimension before an unwelcome guest destroys them all.

 **The Date To End All Dates/ Part One:** Ethan is hell-bent on asking Sarah out as part of the dare him and Benny made a year ago. But trouble starts up again in White Chapel, as an elder is killed and the vampire council drags Ethan out of school to investigate who's behind the murder. While there he finally asks Sarah out on a date and make plans for later that night. Benny and Rory are in search of what Ethan saw in his vision at the vampire council. Together they find something that could end all of White Chapel. While Carol and Analis are studying for the finals, they reminisce about all the crazy things they've encountered this year. But could a darkness be lurking in the oncoming horizon?

 **The Date To End All Dates/ Part Two:** As the mastermind behind all the trouble brought to White Chapel is revealed, the gang use everything they have to try and stop him. But a spell binds Ethan from moving in fear of everyone dying. While Sarah, Benny and grandma all try to get him out of it, grandma gets put in a deep sleep. An unexpected event brings the end to both Analis' and Carol's relationships, but could there be something that could save them? Carol and Analis notice a lot of students and townspeople missing, but no one thinks anything of it. As night falls a huge blast covers the town of White Chapel and an immediate change is felt in the town. The gang is torn apart for the first time, but can they find each other in the rubble of what used to be town hall?


	2. Summer 1

Ethan was upstairs locating his new D&D cards before we started the next round, while I helped Jane braid her hair.

"Make sure the part is even," She reminds, turning around to point her finger at me. I chuckle a bit in response and explain I remembered.

"Why do you want your hair braided anyway? Are you wanting waves in your hair for tomorrow?" I ask, finishing with one braid and working on another.

"I'm seeing Jessica tomorrow and her hair is always curly. No one upstages me." She explains with a death glare, staring off in thought. I tell myself it's best to not get on her bad side.

After I finish her braids she heads off upstairs to plot the rest of her day for tomorrow. Apparently Jessica made a lot of comments that she'll be paying for when they finally meet up. I think a part of it too has to do with the fact she doesn't want to be around when Ethan starts shouting magic spells. He gets really invested and it's kinda scary how good he is at saying some of them. It's almost like he believes they're real.

"Found them!" He shouts, bounding down the stairs with a smile.

"Awesome." I say, heading back over to the dining room table. The doorbell rings and causes us both to turn and look at the door. Without either of us going over to it, the brown wooden door opens by itself to reveal a shaggy, dark brown haired boy with a chirpy smile.

"Ethan! My man, how's it…..hanging," He trails off, looking over to me.

"Who's this?" He continues, pointing to me with a wide chagrin and letting himself in. I watch him set down his laptop on the nearby side table and chug the remainder of his energy drink. He squeezes the empty can and tosses it behind him.

"Benny, this is Carol. Carol, this is Benny," Ethan explains, gesturing to us and heading back to the table.

"Why do you always hide the ladies from me? Also, why do you always get to hang out with the new girls first," Benny asks, extending a hand out toward me but looking at Ethan.

"Hi, I'm Benny. Is it true what they say about the blood of Mexican? That it's filled with passion?" He asks, turning back toward me and closing the distance between us.

"I wouldn't know?" I say, backing off from him.

"Benny, don't scare off my new babysitter. She's the only one who actually likes D&D and I'd like to play with someone who's, you know, not a cheater." Ethan jabs, coming over to slide between us and grab the last unopened energy drink in Benny's hand.

"That was not cheating! It's not my fault I excel in the spells department." He whines, walking over to sit across from Ethan.

"Yeah, right. Explain why your spell wasn't in any of the books." Ethan taunts, his gaze dead on Benny.

"Alright, alright. I'm sorry." Benny sighs, slumping in his chair.

"Are we still playing? Or should I get back to my book?" I ask, still lingering in the front hallway. Ethan waves me over and I sit across from Benny. The moment my butt reaches the seat, I feel rubbing along my leg.

"Alright, I agreed to Dungeons and Dragons, not playing footsie under the table." Ethan stares at me confused as I look at him, then sighs and grunts as I hear,

"Ow!" across from me. Benny grins tightly as if he's forcing it, I understand almost immediately that it was Benny playing footsie and Ethan kicked him for it.

The three of us get lost in game play and soon I forget about the moves Benny was putting on me but an hour ago. I mean, Benny isn't horrible looking. He's kind of cute in a nerdy way. Those green eyes set in a low but round socket are like meadows in the spring, shining with a yellow undertone as the sun rises. His jaw line so sharp that a touch could cut you. He has a long nose with wide nostrils and thick, bushy eyebrows that could be caterpillars. They really work for him though, which wouldn't normally be so if it were anyone else. But I don't want to date the best friend of the guy I'm babysitting, that's just weird.

Ethan on the other hand, could probably get a girl. He's probably cuter than Benny, but until he does something with that wild mane of dark chocolate brown hair, he's a nerd. Wearing all those striped shirts and the snorting laugh probably doesn't help his chances either. Those brown eyes in his low but small sockets are rich in color like freshly waxed mahogany. His nose is thin and bulbous like a buttercup flower. Add that in with his high cheek bones and he's got serious potential.

It's great having a friend though, so I'm not trying to complicate that with a relationship. Even if we're only friends because I'm forced to baby-sit his younger sister and he lingers. Right now we're sort of using each other because I'm new to the neighborhood, so he walks me home and shows me the places where everyone hangs out. In return, I help him forget about a girl he likes that left town around the time their school was having prom. Ethan claims that Sarah is really hot, but has a certain charm about her that makes it easy to talk to her.

"Carol?" Ethan calls out to me.

"Sorry." I say, rolling the three dices.

"Oh no." Benny blurts out, as the two stare at the dice. I've just rolled myself into an enemy camp and am low on weapons, food and in serious need of rest.

"Ethan, what are my chances?" I wonder, looking to him for advice. He stares quizzically at the dice.

"Uhm…..good luck?" He answers, chuckling nervously. I sigh and with the boys' help, I use up whatever resources I have to get me through the long trek. Through several rolls of luck and magic, I manage to pull a card that I can combine with a spell on my person to shield me for a few turns.

"CAROL!" I hear and nearly jump out of my chair. Jane is upstairs playing music still, so I know it's not her and the boys don't have nearly that high a pitch. There's a knock on the door and the three of us look at one another before I reluctantly walk over to it. Benny hides behind the chair he was just sitting in, while Ethan picks his up and holds it high above his head as he stands behind me.

Ignoring the pounding in my chest, I open the door and am pounced by my best friend Analis.

"Ahhh!" She screams in my ear. The three of us squeal in response at her sudden attack and I hit her repeatedly for scaring me.

"I'm babysitting, Latoya! Don't you believe in giving me a call before making me think a crazy person is outside?" I reply, watching her close the door behind her.

"What's with the chair?" She asks, pointing to the one Ethan is still holding. He looks up and chuckles soft and slow before clearing his throat and placing it down at the table. Benny pops up almost instantly afterward and sighs before walking over to her.

"So you have been holding out buddy, not one but two new girls. Hello lovely lady, tell me, is it hot in here? Or is it just you?" He asks, his dimples and smirk making their way across his face. All Analis can do is laugh at his suddenness and push him away before walking around him.

"Seriously, Benny?" Ethan asks, his face showing how done he is with his best friend. Now that I think about it, Benny and Ethan are both Analis' types. I wonder if I'll end up being the third wheel somehow. I mean, it wouldn't be the first time.

We had convinced her parents to move in the same area as us because, both our parents lost their jobs at the same plant. Our dads worked in the local art museum and our moms were hairdressers that had been friends for the longest time. We sort of met because of them and now Analis and I are inseparable. We fight, call each other weird nicknames and get on each other's nerves most of the time. But at the end of the day, we're the only ones who get each other.

"Benny, this is Analis. Analis, this is Ethan's best friend, Benny. He's a goofball, so you two should get along great." I tease, sitting back down at the table.

"Uhm, what is that supposed to mean, Shaquisha?" She says, with a 'tude and follows us to the table.

"Oh nothing, just that you're a big goofball yourself and maybe you two can annoy each other while Ethan and I finish up our game." I hint, watching Ethan roll the dice and watch us in amusement.

"You're so funny, Shaquisha!" She says, before Benny hands her a drink and the two of them start up a conversation. She's still telling them about how it got started while I watch Ethan's turn.

"She's a character." Ethan says, watching me as he moves himself through a cavern of wild boar. He reaps a mound of food during a small battle and makes his way in the same direction I am.

"Yeah, we're both dorks. But hey, it keeps things interesting most of the time. We're not the popular type, so it gives us the perfect chance to be ourselves because we're left alone." I admit, watching him cast a spell for practice since he got a new scroll.

"Hey, nothing wrong with that. Benny, Rory and I are the outcasts at our school, so we're left alone too. It'll be nice to have some more company at the lunch table. As you can see, Benny is…..his own type of interesting." He laughs, entering the realm I got lost in earlier. He hands me the dice and looks to me with a smile.

"He's definitely a handful." I admit, chuckling with him.

"I heard that!" Benny says, looking to us from the other end of the table. It'll be nice having some familiar faces when school starts again. For now though, I'll be enjoying the rest of summer with my new dorks.


	3. Summer 2

Well, I knew I'd end up being the third wheel. It's been about a week since Analis and Benny met and now they're dating. It started with texting and now they're glued to the hip. It's pretty sickening if I'm being honest. Between the cheek kisses, nicknames and random moments of affection, I'm so over it.

"Well, we're here." Ethan says, walking in the sliding gate at the community pool.

"Finally!" Rory says, taking off his sunglasses.

"It's time to put these bad boys to work." Benny claims, pumping up one of his massive water guns.

"Where did you even get those last minute?" I ask, walking behind Benny and watching Analis poke him as they walk.

"I've been saving up for these babies all year. The Ultra Splurge of Destruction." Benny says, sighing as he stops to admire his water guns.

We met Rory last weekend and he's been trying to flirt with me ever since. I'm not sure how to take him. He's a bit of a doofus, but he has good intentions most of the time. It doesn't hurt that he's easy on the eyes either. With his flipped blond hair and dark brown, thick eyebrows it really suites his thin and chiseled face. I love the way his nose thins out into a long pointed end, but somehow I seem to lose myself in the blue of his eyes more, set in a sunken and small socket. It's like staring into a chlorinated pool, watching the sunlight reflect off the top and seeing the green off the bottom. Several times I've completely embarrassed myself because he's spoken to me and I haven't heard a word.

"Carol?" I hear up ahead. Looking around, I stopped mere feet away from the gate and everyone seems to have left me behind.

"You coming?" Rory asks, extending a hand out to me. I smile and nod, removing my spring jacket and taking his hand. I've decided that since we're all supposed to be friends, it's wrong of me to set Ethan and his friends out of my dating zone. It's purposely singling them out and I don't want to do that anymore. I just hope things don't get awkward if things don't work out.

"Shaquisha! Get yer butt over here already! The water feels great!" Analis yells, already swimming in the pool.

"That's an interesting nickname." Rory says as we walk closer to the pool.

"Yeah, they just kinda happened one night and they've stuck ever since." I explain, looking over at him to see him watching me.

"Yeah! Kinda like I always nickname myself based off whatever I'm doing that week." He says with a big grin.

"Something like that." I say with a chuckle.

"Hey, Carol, Rory! You guys are missing out on all the fun!" Ethan screams as him and Benny shoot each other with water guns while chasing each other in the pool.

"Hey! No fair, you can't start without me!" Rory screams, letting go of my hand and jumping in the pool.

"Prepare to die!" Rory screams, his water gun spraying his friends rapidly. Benny's guns are faster, shoot farther and have several nozzles for a thicker stream.

Sigh. I guess the hand holding is over. Analis has her jacket over a lawn chair by the pool where the guys have placed their stuff. I take my jacket and place it next to hers before taking off my big shirt to show my one piece. The less skin I showed, the better.

It's not that I hated the way I looked, I just wish I was more confident in showing it in front of others. Analis is the same way and that's another reason why we bond so well. We both have a bit of a tummy and we're self conscious about it. A little thickness never hurt anyone, some guys even prefer it. But getting yourself to accept it? That's a lot harder.

"God, this water is perfect." I say, wading myself through the water toward Analis.

"Right? It's so cold! But the good kind, not the freeze your butt off kind." She says with a laugh.

"So how are things with you and Benny? Or should I say Benjamin?" I tease, smirking at her as we do laps in the pool.

"Oh hush up, I was just getting to know them and I'm terrible with names." She whines, trying to kick me. Her black and plaid one piece allowing her perfect leg room.

"We're doing great, he's a bit of a pain sometimes, but I'm happy so far. I see you and Rory are getting along." She jabs, poking my side.

"Not even. That hand holding was the most we've done. I think we've had maybe five conversations within this past week." I explain with a smile.

"Then why are you smiling just thinking about them?" She taunts.

"Cause he's so cute!" I squeak. She laughs at my voice and we finish up our second lap when she leans up against the wall.

"Ethan says he can be a bit of a loose nut. So I always feel weird when he says something that's so obviously wrong, but I'm getting used to it. I think it's actually starting to grow on me." I admit, kicking my feet in the water as I use the wall as support.

"Well I hope you two end up together, I don't think I've ever seen you with someone. You deserve to be happy." Analis says, before smiling and reaching for her bag.

"Ahhh!" Ethan screams before dive bombing the area we're in and shooting back up almost just as quickly.

"No surrender! Get the prisoner!" Rory yells as him and Benny draw their weapons on Ethan.

"It's time to hit the showers." Benny says with a smirk as he aims and goes to pull the trigger. I jump over to Ethan just seconds before they shoot and take the hits.

"Carol!" The guys scream, while Ethan helps me get to my feet. With a mouth full of water, when I reach the surface I spit it in their direction.

"Ahh!" They scream in unison as Analis laughs at their expense.

"Incoming!" Rory screams as he jumps in and Ethan grabs the crook of my elbow to lead me away.

"Get back here!" Benny screams as he jumps in as well. The other families that are here are staring at us like we're rowdy kids who should be kicked out.

"Ambush!" Ethan yells as Rory and Benny close in on us, his gun under the water as he refills it quickly.

"Incoming!" We hear behind Benny and Rory. I watch as Analis pounces on Benny's back, causing him to fall face first in the water. While Benny is distracted Ethan shoots at Rory and the two of them go at it, chasing each other.

"Babe!" Benny yells, him and Analis laughing as he tries to tickle her off of him. I leave Ethan's side to slink back and swim behind Rory. When I see he's not paying attention, I pants him in the pool and watch his gun drop. While he fixes his swimming trunks, I grab his dropped weapon.

"Ambush!" I yell from behind him. Just as his shorts get on, he turns to get a face full of water.

"That's it!" He shouts with a smile. I back up as I shoot and Ethan brings up the rear, but Rory's going after me, not Ethan.

"Ahh!" I squeal, the both of us submerging under the water and his arms around me, trying to get his weapon. There's a second of eye contact, before it's broken by Analis and Benny bumping us.

The five of us head over to the tables and lawn chairs, my blue and white floral suit matching the colors of them. Analis hands me a water from her bag, the one I handed her before we got here. Hers is already half empty from this heat. The guys are laughing about the game in the pool as they talk about it, but I keep catching Rory playing eye tag with me constantly. I make sure to smile every time he does, because Analis is right. I do deserve to be happy.

"I can't believe you two gained up on me. Some friends you are," Ethan teases, the other two laughing.

"The only friend who had my back was Carol and she wasn't even playing!" He continues, the three of them laughing as they remember.

"Hey, no one said this couldn't be a duel for the pool. It just so happened that your time was up." Benny says with a smile.

"Which by the way babe, I thought you were on my side?" He asks, looking at Analis as we sit next to each other.

"What was it that you said? 'No one said it couldn't be a duel?' I was just fighting my rights for it." She says with a laugh.

As Ethan comes to her defense and Benny pretends to be physically hurt by her words, I motion for Rory to follow me toward the fence. I start walking and hug my towel against my arms. I figured it would take him a minute or two to get to my side comfortably, but he appears almost instantly. He smiles at me and I can't help but smile back.

"This was fun." I say, looking up at him. It's crazy to think he's taller than me but I'm older.

"Yeah, it was. Did you get a good view?" He asks with a laugh. I almost ask him what he means, when I remember pantsing him. I blush but nod.

"Very cute." I admit, looking at him again. We stop for no reason at one of the buildings and I lean against the fence.

It's almost like I can physically see him blush. He's so cute sometimes, I push myself forward and kiss his cheek before running off and heading in the direction of the pool. As I'm giggling, not but a minute after doing so he catches up to me. I feel his arms around my stomach as he pulls me to him and returns the kiss. I'm struggling to get out of his hold, but he has a tight grip and it's here that I realize he might be stronger than he looks.


	4. Summer 3

"Ethan!" I scream, his little sister running behind me. He runs into the kitchen and slides across the floor, looking around the kitchen quickly.

"What? What?!" He shouts, looking to the two of us.

"Over there." I say in a whisper as I point to the island. He slowly walks over to it and peeks around it, then looks atop it.

"A spider? Seriously?!" He asks, sighing and catching it with a cup before tossing it outside.

"You don't understand, I'm deathly afraid of spiders. Look at these goosebumps!" I shout, pointing to my arm and extending it to him.

"Next time, just kill it with the bug spray." He says, throwing his arms up in the air in exasperation. He's been a little moody since he found out all his attempts at getting Sarah to return failed.

I watch him leave and sigh to myself.

"So are you going to date my brother or what?" Jane asks from behind me.

"What?" I ask in shock.

"I've seen the way you two are with each other and all he does is talk about you at dinner. So I figured the feelings must be mutual." Jane says this with a straight face. I have no choice but to believe her.

We both stare at each other for what feels like forever in this kitchen. My mind is completely blank from this information, I don't know how to process it or what to do with it.

"Well," She asks, her stance unrelenting.

"Are you and my brother going to date?" She pushes again.

"No. At least, I don't think so. I mean, - no." I stumble to get out as an answer.

"Good. He's already had one babysitter hurt him, I hate to see him go through this again. He might be a big pain, but he's still my brother." She says nonchalantly, before leaving the room to go get my laptop.

Every day I spend here, the more frazzled I become because of Jane's crudeness. Sigh, I suppose this is part of the reason why I'm paid eight dollars an hour.

"I think we should start with the peanut butter ones." Jane says when she comes back. We were supposed to start on cookies when we were interrupted by that spider.

"Yeah, okay." I say without really hearing her.

"Jane, were you telling the truth just now? About Ethan?" I ask, still hung up on this. She brings out most of the ingredients when she turns to me and nods.

"Yeah, why?" She wonders.

"When did he start doing this?" I ask, genuinely curious now.

"Around the time Analis came over for the first time. That was when he really started going into story mode." She explains, thinking it over and nodding.

"So why wouldn't you think it was Analis he liked?" I wonder, confused as to why I would be the one.

"Because she's dating Benny. I knew nothing was going to happen with her." She explains. I stifle my laugh, but smile in response. So it was a friend thing, Jane just misread it as a crush thing. On the other hand, now I feel like I should get a boyfriend since, apparently, it's safer for me if I have one in this house.

As Jane stirs up the dry and wet ingredients, I hear Ethan groaning upstairs in frustration and excuse myself to go check on him. I hear Analis and Benny enter the house the minute I reach the top of the stairs. They both are in the kitchen when I reach Ethan's room. He's still fuming when I enter and I wonder how long he's been stressing for.

"So, should I get out the boxing gloves or can we still use words?" I joke, walking next to him and looking over his shoulder.

"Hey. It's just this Sarah thing, you know? I just want to know she's okay." He says while staring at his computer screen.

"You haven't heard anything?" I wonder, thinking maybe he missed something.

"Nothing, believe me I've been looking." He admits, pointing to his small garbage can full of random things that all look gross and tattered.

We sit in silence for a minute as I let that sink in. Midnight walks around town to look in and around dumpsters. Poor E, he's got it bad.

"Well, why don't you give it a rest for a while? I mean, what does Rochelle do in that dusk movie? She gets herself lost and worse for wear by trying to look for someone who doesn't want to be found. It's not until she stops trying that events lead to Jakeward's return. " I recall as I try to simple things out for him.

"Jakeward…" He says, looking to the floor and rubbing his chin with his thumb in thought.

"Right. Now come on, we've got company downstairs." I advise, helping him out of his computer chair so he has no say.

Just as he gets fully off the seat, I pull too hard and he trips over the chair leg. We stumble to stand and he falls into me, his face just barely missing my chest. Our hands are holding each other's and close to our sides. He pulls himself off me and looks at my face to apologize, only to realize it puts us inches away from kissing distance. We both break out into a blush.

"Carol, Ethan, the cookies are just about-" Rory says as he enters Ethan's room. We turn to look at him and he sees the compromising position we were in.

"I guess that means the leftovers will need to get eaten before we start the next batch. Care to help me eat some cookie dough from the bowl?" I ask Rory, pulling away from Ethan and heading downstairs.

"Do I!" Rory says excitedly, bounding down the stairs past me. He does it so fast, I don't know how.

"Race you to the kitchen!" He yells as he's already way ahead of me. I look up behind me and see Ethan at the top of the stairs, I smile at him before going after Rory.

"You're such a cheater, Rory!" I shout, making my way into the kitchen and smelling freshly baked peanut butter cookies.

"Nuh uh! You're just a slow poke." He says, sticking out his tongue. I smile at his child like antics and grab two spoons, handing him one and taking a spoonful of cookie dough with mine.

"Cookies are my weakness. Where's the hot cocoa?" Analis asks, getting up from her seat to look in cabinets.

"Third cabinet, in the back." Jane advises, eating a cookie and taking a drink of milk.

Benny is making a cookie sandwich and awaiting Analis' return before digging into it. I watch him count the swirls in each cookie to pass the time.

"Ethan, my main man!" He shouts when E comes through the door.

"I heard there was cookies?" Ethan asks, grabbing one from the tray. I wonder how many times this house is used as a group hangout between the six of us.

"Want a bite?" Rory offers, holding up his spoon full of cookie dough. I smile and nod at him, as he brings it closer so I can bite it. In return, I offer mine to him and we end up spoon feeding each other. He seems to grow taller as he looks at me with an impish grin. I can't stop staring at his eyes as he looks down at me and I forget we're in a shared kitchen.

"Excuse me." Ethan says as he bumps into Rory. My daze must've worn off, because Rory seems normal height now.

"Babe, you make the best hot chocolate." Benny says as he dunks his cookie sandwich into the big mug.

"Thanks, benny wabbit." She says with a smile. They share a kiss and both have cocoa mustaches from the drink.

"Did you seriously call him Benny wabbit?" I ask, in clear disbelief.

"Hush up, Shaquisha!" She shouts in return, leaving me in a fit of giggles.

I didn't think when I moved here this summer that I would get so many new friends so fast. But here I am, a week before school starts, with friends and a possible love interest. I'm definitely going to miss these days when school starts and the teasing begins, but for now, I'm enjoying myself. It's been a long time since things have worked out so well so fast, I'm going to savor every moment.

"Hey, Carol, are we dating?" Rory asks as everyone gets lost in conversation.

"If you're not, you two are clearly failing at being platonic friends." Ethan butts in with a smirk. I blush and feel my face warm up from the blush and hide it with my hands.

"Ethan, now you broke her!" Rory yells, I feel his arms around me in a hug.

"Are you finally dating now?" Benny yells from across the room.

"It's about time, Shaquisha! That boy obviously can't function properly when you're around." Analis adds in, I wonder what moment I missed between the two of them.

There's a knock on the door as I try to settle myself and Ethan goes to answer it.

"Hey, Erica." E says with a smile, as he lets a blonde girl in. She's gorgeous, her figure is tall and thin but filled with curves in all the right places. Her hair is straight and falls down to her waist, while still retaining some waves for volume.

"I was in the neighborhood and decided to grab a bite to eat, when all of a sudden I- who're they?" She asks, pointing to Analis and myself.

"This is Carol, the new babysitter and her friend Analis." Ethan explains, taking a bite of his cookie.

"I see. Well, I'm Erica. I am probably the coolest person these dorks know and- I'm sorry, are you two dating?" She asks, pointing to Rory and I. I get a long look at her face, finding myself captivated by her button nose and jade green eyes set in wide sockets.

"Yes?" I answer quizzically.

"Sorry Erica, I've moved on from us. Now I've got a girl who'll appreciate the man I am." Rory says with a contented sigh.

"WHAT?!" She shouts in rage of disbelief. I don't know who this girl is or how the guys became friends with her, but I have a bad feeling about this.


	5. Episode 1 Part 1

The next day at school I try to get my bearings together and not get lost in this place. It's not a particularly big school, just very similar everywhere. So I could walk into a bathroom and then leave to enter another bathroom. It was definitely hard to find like, all of my classes. But with Erica, Rory and occasionally Benny, I was able to get redirected when I got off track. Oddly enough, I didn't get any classes with Analis. Except gym, but there's no way to actually talk in that class.

"Nice of you to join us, Carol. You're lucky this is the first week, or else you'd be walking right back out to the vice principal's office." The blond teacher with a sharp and angular nose says. I still have to learn her name, but I already know I hate her.

"Sorry, won't happen again." I say, trying to find an empty seat.

I see Benny sitting in the front on the right and Ethan just behind him, with Rory in the back on the left side. Sighing to myself, I walk over to the back of class and watch Rory point to the seat behind him. He attempts to do it subtlety, but manages to cause more attention to himself as he brings his arms up and points rapidly down. I smile at him and sit, noticing a lot of confused glances in our direction. This would be the class I hate walking into every week.

"Hey, you okay?" Analis asks as I get dressed in the locker room.

"It's been a long day. Also, I really don't want to meet the girl who I keep running into today. She's a bit psychotic." I admit, pulling up my jeans. Analis is fully dressed already in black jeans and a print shirt.

"What girl? Erica? We've met her already and she's not that bad….if you don't get in her way."

"No. I don't know her name, but she's got tanned skin like driftwood on the beach and she's just as gorgeous as Erica. I think she's got brown eyes, set in a small and thin socket. But her hair….that's a difficult thing to describe. Because it's definitely light brown, straight and goes about to the middle of her back. But I think she's mixed, cause I'm sure she can buy her hair. If you catch what I'm putting down." I get out, finishing putting my rose shirt on and grabbing my bag out of my locker.

She stares at me incredulous for a while and I have to snap my fingers in her face to get her attention.

"What?" I ask, stumped as to why my best friend is at a loss for words.

"Did you like, stalk her, or something?" She asks. I laugh to myself for a bit before shaking my head and sighing.

"I've bumped into her like fifteen times today, I got plenty of good looks at her. Especially in bad moments….there was a lot. You know, she dumped the vice principal in the trash?! " I whisper to her in a hushed yell.

"You would stalk the only psycho at this school." Analis says, getting up and walking out with me into the hallway.

As we're walking down the hall I try to explain myself to no avail before we hug and go our separate ways. I'm heading to my last class today with Mr. G. Apparently, I have everyone in our group in this class but I think Analis missed out with this one too. Which sucks, cause I really don't want to deal with Erica without her. At least with both of us there, she can't try to strangle us while we're not looking.

I sit down at the nearest empty seat, realizing I'm hella early and look around at the class. It's your standard science classroom, but instead of an erase board in the front it's an old school blackboard. I guess Whitechapel crapped out on getting scholastic funding. Mr. G looks pretty chill, actually, I think he might be my first teacher crush since my fourth grade one. His light brown hair is short and gelled to stand straight up with a curve toward the front. His glasses are circular and gray with thin lenses, they compliment his bluish, gray eyes in thin and wide set sockets. With his lightly tanned complexion, his features stand out more compared to everyone else at this school.

After a cleared throat sitting next to me, I look to my right and see Rory….realizing that I stared so long at Mr. G that the entire classroom filled up without my knowing. A quick scan around the room shows me everyone in the group, including Analis right behind Benny, including the psycho chick from earlier who's sitting next to Erica. I wonder how Analis got put in last minute, although now I know which class is going to be my favorite.

* * *

I walk home with Jane talking about my day.

"Mr. G is actually cute. It's nice that he's so chill too, makes him a lot more likable." I admit as we enter their house. I was supposed to stay with them until their mother got back from work, which was in an hour or so. But Ethan is nowhere to be found.

"Ew." Is all she can muster in response. I laugh at her and walk upstairs to help with her homework.

We cut through fractions and division fairly quickly, then put a dent through history and English. She's got a couple worksheets left when we decide to call it quits for a snack.

"So how are things with Jessica going?" I ask as she bites into her sandwich.

"Ugh, don't even talk about that traitor in front of me." She says angrily, staring at her sandwich in disgust.

"That bad?" I ask with a small snicker.

"She bought the last poster of Dusk at the store and knew I was going to get it," She explains, crushing some of her chips in the palm of her hand.

"I'll be reminding her why I'm the one in charge when I see her next." She admits with a smirk. I nod in response and take a drink of water, reluctantly looking at her.

I hear Ethan upstairs talking to several people and can only speculate that Rory and Benny are here. He's been shutting me out since our last class, but I haven't done anything worthy of it. I wonder if I shouldn't go say something to him, or try to get him to talk to me so I'm not stuck in this rut with him till I leave. Jane sighs next to me and I watch her devour the last half of her sandwich.

"Just go up there, you know you want to." She says with a contented sigh and picks up her last half of sandwich.

"I'll just be a minute, I swear." I say with a smile.

"If you hurt him, I will hurt you, got it?" She yells as I'm walking upstairs.

"It's not like that!" I shout back, heading toward his door.

As soon as I open the door, I see Ethan on the floor surrounded by a burlap sack and Rory just above him helping him up. Benny is holding a giant book that looks as if it's been used very frequently over the years. There's tears in the binding and worn edges from flipping through the pages. The pages have small tabs sticking out everywhere from where he's bookmarked several sections. But the thing that bothers me most is the open window and why I didn't see or hear them come in through the front door.

"What are you three doing up here?" I ask, shocked and very curious. Ethan laughs in a nervous manner and Benny stutters to get his words out.

"Hi, pumpkin." Rory says as he smiles at me and relaxes himself, making Ethan fall in the process.

"Nice one, Rory." Ethan says as Rory sees his mistake and helps him back up.

"How did you three come through the window?! Also, why was Ethan in a sack? What kind of LARPing is this?!" I shout in disbelief.

"It's not what it looks like." Ethan tries to explain calmly, he walks over to me with a gentle expression and sits me in his computer chair.

"I ran into some trouble with a couple jocks at school today, so Rory and Benny helped me get home without being seen. When I said we're a couple of loners, I wasn't kidding. We're the outcasts in a way and it's a bit rough some days." He says with a smile.

"See, now I would totally believe that. But your room is on the second floor….even if the three of you stood on each other's shoulders it wouldn't be possible." I point out, amazed at how he's clearly lying to my face.

The three of them look at each other and I'm left wondering what they aren't telling me. He's never lied o me before, why is just starting now when school starts?

"Because, we didn't come through the window. We came in through the back door while you were with Jane in her room." Ethan explains with a half smile.

"Yeah! We heard you two heading downstairs when we got to his room." Benny chimes in with derpy smile. I look to the two of them and wonder if that's even possible without my hearing them come up the stairs.

"Rory," I say with a smile as I get up from the chair and walk over to him.

"Is this true?" I ask, watching his face for any tells. His eyes dart left and right behind me and I can only guess who he's looking at.

"Rory!" He looks back to me when I call his name.

"Stop looking to your friends for help and look at me." I say with my babysitting voice.

"Well, I mean, it's not like we could get in any other way." He says with a nervous chuckle.

"I'm like, ninety percent positive that this is all fabricated bullcrap, but because I can't prove it I'm forced to believe you." I admit, walking away from them.

"Is the bully why you've been so distant with me?" I ask, looking to Ethan before I leave.

"Yeah, he even shoved me in Analis' locker." He says with a shrug.

"Well, I'm sorry your first day sucked and I hope you find a way out of this." I say as I go downstairs.

As I close the door behind me, I look to the stairs and get lost in thought. I wonder if the new girl I kept seeing in the halls is somehow behind all this.


	6. Episode 1 Part 2

In the midst of Ethan ignoring me and the boys acting even crazier than usual, I completely overlooked that Dirk Batterson is in town. Why is he even in Whitechapel? Of all the places he could visit and he chooses this little town smack dab in the middle of Canada. What is his agent thinking and why hasn't he fired them yet?

Erica hasn't been seen since this morning at school where she was all over Dirk and took off with him. While Benny is making the most of Dirk's visit and stealing all his used items to sell to crazed fan girls. Jakeward isn't even that cute, he's too much of a pretty boy and is clearly vain. I was always a big Eddie fan myself. Something about werewolves just does it for me.

"Aren't you going to try and find that Dusk guy? That's what I'd be doing if I could go." Jane asks, looking to me from writing the last of her homework.

"Nah, I like Dusk but I don't die over Jakeward. Vampires don't do it for me. I always thought she should be with Eddie." I admit, checking over her work before placing it back down.

"Ugh, you're that shipper." She says before putting her homework away. I smile in response and watch her grab her headphones to listen to music on her phone.

As I head downstairs I bump into Rory and nearly fall over from the impact. He grabs my hand and apologizes profusely.

"It's fine, don't worry about it. You're really solid though, huh?" I ask, looking at him in disbelief.

"So, if you're not doing anything can we game for a bit? I mean, you do like gaming, right?" I ask again, looking to him and then seeing Ethan and Benny running behind him.

"We'll be back, a friend of ours needs us and their test is tomorrow." Ethan says, just before he grabs a shrugging Rory and the three of them run out the door. I sigh in defeat and plop myself on their couch to call Analis.

"Shaquisha, don't worry girl. I already know you're stressing about this new girl and Erica. So I'm digging up everything I can and getting a dish together. By the end of today, I will have everything you need to know about them at my fingertips." She says, before hanging up on me and leaving me speechless.

She can be so unhelpful at times. But Latoya does have her perks, I suppose. It just sucks that the one time I need her, she's off playing Nancy Drew. Now I'm stuck waiting for Ethan's mom to get home and forced to do my homework. I mean, I would've done it eventually, but doing it out of boredom is just sad.

* * *

I'm laying in bed, just getting home from babysitting and I hear a knock at the door. My parents aren't home yet so I wonder who it could be. As I make my way downstairs, the knocking increases and grows intensely.

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" I shout, opening the door and staring at a frazzled Rory.

"Carol, we need your help." Rory says as he leans against my house in exhaustion.

"I've never gone so fast before, I'm a little dizzy." He claims, holding the frame for support. I grab his hand and start to pull him in.

"Rory, come in. You need to rest for a while." I tell him, watching him almost fall onto me. He grabs hold of my side with one hand and holds my hand with the other. We stay like this for a moment and I try to feel for his pulse but there's nothing.

"We have to go. Ethan and Benny need our help, Sarah could get in a lot of trouble. You have to come help." He says, just before standing straight and pulling me with him. I watch him nod his head and then he holds me close to him before running off.

Within a few seconds of time we're in a new location and I'm swallowing nausea. I have waves of motion sickness and fall into Rory's chest.

"Sorry, I should've warned you to close your eyes since it's your first time flying." He says with a smile. I stare at him with confusion and disbelief.

"What just happened?" I ask, looking around at our surroundings.

"And where are we?" I add in, watching Benny hold a spherical case with strange markings on them. Erica and the new girl from school are standing with Dirk just behind them and they both have fangs and golden eyes. Ethan is the only one not doing anything weird in front of three people who are gorgeous and also have fangs and golden eyes.

"We're at the vampire council, Ethan and Benny need help trying to get this green mist that's killing the vampires." He explains with a dopey smile.

"Which reminds me, I should probably stand behind for back up." He continues, walking over to stand between Ethan and Benny.

"Seriously, Rory?! Why did you bring Carol?! I thought we agreed she couldn't know about the vampire thing?!" Ethan yells, looking both surprised and ticked off.

"You said we needed help, so sorry for thinking my smart and peace making girlfriend would do us some good!" He defends, nodding his head in content. I can't tell whether to laugh or cry at his statement. Either way, things were starting to escalate between the group and the people in front of them.

"I'm so confused, what is happening?" I whisper to myself as the short girl sentences them to death. As she gathers everyone's votes one of the members starts attacking her. His eyes turn green and seem to take on a deeper depth. She cringes away from him as he tries to eat her.

"Here, Breathy Deathy!" Ethan screams at the possessed vampire, while he holds the silver tin and shakes it in front of him. The possessed vampire follows Ethan across the table and through our group of friends. Just as he makes it through and gets him away from the table full of vampires, E falls and the contents inside the vial spill all over him.

"Ethan, are you okay?!" Sarah screams at him in concern, running to his side and kneeling beside him. He gasps for air as the green mist comes out of the vampire's body and sprawls over him. The vampire faints after the mist leaves him and Ethan's face contorts into shock as it seeps into him.

"Saquisha, I got the dish on Erica and Sarah! OH MY GOD, WHAT HAPPENED TO ETHAN?!" Analis screams as she enters the room we're in. She stands in shock as she watches Ethan spring up and start attacking Sarah. Benny runs over and pulls her in my direction where we're safe.

"Where's the tin?!" He screams, falling to the floor on his knees and gathering the materials that spilled out. Sarah and Ethan are butting heads as she tries to keep him from killing her.

"Rory, I'm going to need another sample, do you mind?" Benny asks, as he walks over to him. Rory shakes his head to say he doesn't, when Benny pulls out his hair and throws it into the tin.

"Shaquisha, what is going on?" Analis asks, just as confused as I am. She stares at her boyfriend and our friends casting spells and fighting with each other in shock and horror. I stare just as bewildered and shake my head.

"Girl, I have no idea. Rory dragged me here to help and I have no idea what I'm supposed to do. Just keep it together girl." I say in attempts to keep her from stressing. My mind races as I try to process what I'm seeing and what I could be doing to help.

"LATOYA, butt confidence Ethan on three. Ready?" She stares at me like I've lost my mind and I shake her to get her to focus. She nods her head and verbally agrees as we run between Sarah and Ethan. I shake my butt and bump him to Latoya, then she shakes hers and bumps him towards the ground.

"Secantos - delthorum - recantos - elthor!" Benny recites as he holds the vile toward Ethan. The mist leaves Ethan's body slowly and makes it's way into the vile. Benny holds onto it tightly, standing his ground and using all his strength to keep himself to falling. Analis grabs his shoulders and pushes him toward the ground to keep him steady. As soon as the mist is entirely in the vile he seals it up tight.

"Anti-vampire mist, anyone?" He says with a smirk, waving the vile gently. Our group of friends look over the vampires as Sarah walks over to them. We start huddling together and keeping close to stay away from the vampires.

"Still mad at me for defending the mortals who just saved your lives?" Sarah asks with a bite. The girl claims that Sarah is no fun and lets us leave. Just as we start to walk out she calls for us to stop. Then claims she wants Dirk's autograph for a friend, because yes, Erica brought him with her.

"Vampire awkward." Benny says as the rest of us continue to file out of the building. On the way home Analis and I have a thousand questions we're shooting out while Ethan and Sarah explain everything. Knowing that my boyfriend and two of my new friends are vampires, is a little daunting but something I could get used to. Analis on the other hand, is finding every spell under the sun that Benny can do and making him do it. Including endless cocoa refills.

* * *

When we get back home, E's mom and dad hire Sarah right back on the spot. I expected as much seeing as how she was with them first, I can't lie when I say it hurt though. As we all went to our own homes, I laid in bed for a while still processing all of this and leaving the tv on for background noise. A segment on Dirk claiming vampires to be real came on and I laughed. Then a knock sounded on my window, interrupting everything.

Rory was floating outside my second story window and waving at me. I smiled and opened my window, inviting him in instantly. We talked for a while, him finally being able to tell me everything about himself. It's a little upsetting that vampires can't sleep or show up on film, but Rory doesn't seem upset about it so I won't let it get to me. There goes all those holiday moments we were going to have. I know Analis is having a blast though, I've received multiple pictures of things Benny has conjured up for her so far and cocoa mustache selfies. I think they thought they'd lose us if we found out about this secret of theirs, but in reality, it's actually made us closer.


	7. Episode 2 Part 1

I woke up this morning feeling like I had been laying in the sun at high noon wearing all my winter clothes. Everything was caked in my sweat and I felt like throwing up from my internal temperature being so high. Groaning, I rolled over onto my back and looked around to find Rory moving quickly.

"Why is it so hot in here? Why are there so many blankets?!" I ask, annoyed and puzzled at the same time.

"I made us a fort!" He says excitedly, stopping in one place for me to see. I watch him make wide gestures with his arms to enhance the size of the fort he made. They're all piled on top my bed and myself, instantly making me realize why I was so hot.

"There's a snack bar over here-" He says with a chirpy tone and points to a dent in the blankets. Inside is a neatly stacked assortment of snacks and drinks.

"What time is it?" I ask, cutting him off before he can ramble on anymore. We had school today and if I had time still to get ready or get a few more hours sleep, that's what I was going to be doing. But instead of giving me a solid answer, he frowns slightly. Then within the same moment smiles again.

"It's snack time." He announces, so happy with himself for thinking of that response. I watch him curiously crawl into our fort and help himself to a bag of cheese puffs.

"I must be a gentleman, would you like some?" He asks, offering me his bag before pointing to the pile.

"Or maybe a breakfast danish?" He adds on, holding a giant honey bun in his hand.

Sighing, I grab my phone off the nightstand and look for the time in the top right corner. Great. I had two hours to try and ungrossify myself before school. I quickly bolt out of bed and grab my supplies for a shower, all the while Rory is calling me back into the fort.

"Wait, there's ding dongs! And I got some gushers too! WHAT ABOUT SOME OJ?!" He screams after me as I walk across the room and out the bedroom door.

* * *

As I'm walking to school I wonder if Rory left early to find him a proper vampire's breakfast. I've been trying to reach him through text and he hasn't answered yet. One of the main reasons I'm trying to get a hold of him so desperately is because there's a guy who's been tailing me for a block now. I mean, he's great to look at, but I have no idea who he is and I really don't want to be the one who finds out. Crap, he's jogging to catch up to me. It'd be weird if I ran from him and he wasn't even following me, right? Right.

"Hey, wait up!" He says in a pant and starts walking alongside me. I stiffen instantly and avoid eye contact as he exhales for a final time and smiles at me.

"Okay, so I desperately need your help." He admits, trying to catch my face with his eyes and not really getting me eye to eye.

"Shaquisha!" He screams loudly. I jump back in surprise and stop where I stand.

I turn to him in surprise and shock and ask,

"How do you know that nickname?" chilled to my bone. He looks at me bewildered and tosses his hands up in the air.

"It's a valid question!" I shout at this cute stranger.

"Shaquisha, it's me, Latoya! Benny turned me into a guy and now I need your help getting back to normal. HELP ME!" He shouts at me. I stare at his face in shock. I mean, it's possible it could be Latoya. As I inch closer to him, I inspect his face closely looking for any sign of her in there.

His hair is black, jet black like a raven's feathers. It shines whenever the sunlight hits it just right, like a sheen of gel. Their hair color is the same, anything else? They share the same lightly tanned skin tone, like a fading beach tan after weeks of not going. Analis doesn't have any muscles, but her weight could be distributed into muscle if she worked out. In basically all the same places this guy has them…..okay. Their nose is thin at the base, but widens as it spreads out and has a boopable point.

What about the eyes? I get all into his face, practically kissing distance as I look deep into his eyes. They're a darker pigment of hazel, while hers are brighter. But the flecks of green in a soft glow of orangish brown are definitely there like hers.

"Girl, I know I am a walking snack right now, but I am still straight." He says as he pushes me off.

I laugh at his comment and no longer doubt it's Latoya.

"Alright, sorry, I had to be sure. Has Benny found a way to change you back yet?" I ask as we continue on to school. She explains that he's looking into it, but he'll probably need his grandmother's assistance this time.

We're discussing how to explain her current problem with her teachers when we bump into Sarah and Erica at school. They use their super speed to quickly get to their lockers and away from us. We brush it off as we're used to this treatment. But I notice that Erica can't stop stalking Analis and I mention it to her. We both agree it might be wise to get some payback on them.

The two of us enter Mr. G's classroom and crash into the guys who're stuck in the doorway. We look to the teacher by his desk and see a beautiful, young woman holding a crystal skull.

"Hottest. Sub. Ever." The three of them say in unison, watching her intently. Analis and I smack our boyfriends upside their heads. They rub the spot but don't even seem fazed.

Analis and I are shooed out of the classroom by the new sub while Erica and Sarah come over to talk to Ethan. She stops their conversation and tells us all to leave while Ethan goes back to his seat.

"Where are all the female warriors?" Erica asks as Ms. Lucia refers to the boys in the classroom as such. She looks at her sharply before grabbing hold of the door, ready to close it at a moment's notice.

"Banished. Female warriors are only useful to serve the queen at the hour of judgment." She explains, closing the door on us and returning to the board. Analis is being placed in an empty seat inside where she's shrugging at me through the window. The three of us stand there, completely dumbfounded. This sub was not about to ruin the only class I like at this school.

* * *

As Erica and Sarah are kicked out of their class as well because the sub won't allow maidens to help, we start heading off toward lunch. They talk in front of me as I trail along behind them quietly. What I wouldn't give for Analis to be back to her normal self again. I haven't spoken to her since I left her this morning at class. Actually, I haven't heard from any of the guys today. Now I'm really regretting passing up Rory's fort this morning.

"Psst, Shaquisha." I hear in a hushed whisper. There's no one in my view who's looking at me and as I look around, I see no one.

"Over here!" I hear someone shout in a hushed tone. Latoya is hiding under the stairs behind shrubbery and trying to distance herself from the rest of the guys.

"What are you doing over here?" I ask her, hiding behind the plants with her. She's currently shirtless like the rest of the guys in the main hall. Her chiseled chest is painted with an infinite sun and she's holding her arms to herself in self consciousness. I blush as I hand her my sweater off my back.

"Geez Shaquisha, you useless lesbian!" She scolds me, hitting me on the arm as she puts the jacket on. It fits very small and tight on her.

"The sub is a freak. We've had to collect animal parts, gold and now we're supposed to be chanting for the sun king." She explains, glaring at the sub through the bushes.

"Technically, this is my straight side coming out and I knew from the moment I saw her that she was a freak." I explain, tapping her on her forehead. I watch as the guys all start chanting around the skull as Mr. G holds the crystal skull. She even got him involved?! This witch is gonna get it.

"Masta Eecha Lucia na!" They continuously chant throughout the school. It's as if the lot of them are under a spell or something. That's it! Maybe Benny has something in his spell book that can point to something like this.

"Look, just hold down the fort here and do some undercover work for us girls." She flings her arms up in frustration, as if to say that she's still one.

"You know what I mean. Just make sure they don't do something stupid. I'm going to try and find a spell in Benny's book to try and fix this." I explain, watching her frazzled and dopey expression as I run off.

When I make it to Ethan's house I get questioned by Jane and explain to her what I'm looking for. She leads me upstairs to E's room and I find the spell book, but nothing related to the sun king inside.

"This is going to take a lot of girl power." I admit to myself.

"Jane, do me a favor and keep in touch with me about what Erica and Sarah will be doing, okay?" I ask, hoping she'll help.

"Can do." She says with a smile as I run off, trying to find Benny's block to search for Grandma. If anyone can put this puzzle together, it's gonna be her. I just hope that Analis can hold out until then or that the guys don't do something idiotic.


	8. Episode 2 Part 2

As I round the corner to Benny's house, I wipe off the last bead of sweat on my forehead. Today was like it gets in the summers of my old town; humid and unforgiving. I wonder if this is part of their normal weather here, or if Ms. Lucia is affecting more than just the student body. I knock on the front door as I walk up the last of the steps. Grandma opens the door instantly, almost as if she was expecting me.

"Hi there, Tweedle Dee. You didn't bring Tweedle Dumb with you?" She jokes, letting me inside and closing the door behind me. I lean against her wall and let the cool air from her AC hit me like a gentle embrace. It feels like the wind in spring time and the brush of the refrigerator as you linger inside it too long.

"We need your help, grandma. There's a new substitute teacher at school and she has all the boys under some sort of spell. She asks for crazy demands like frog hearts and gold for someone she calls the Sun King." I finally get out, slinking down to the floor and sitting with my legs spread out in front of me. She gets a look on her face and then walks off. She returns a moment later with a giant book and a bottled water for me.

"Come into the living room, dear." She says, helping me up and offering me a seat on her sofa. The two of us sit there and look through a giant, old book that's been through a lot. I try not to chug the water I was handed, but within ten minutes the whole thing is gone. At this time grandma finds whatever she was looking for inside the book.

Just as we're about to read the words written on a page with Egyptian pictures, a weather report shows up on the TV.

"We bring you this weather bulletin to bring you some new information discovered that scientists and some people, including my wife, are worried about. It has to do with an enlarged solar corona, or sun, that that may melt the entire planet. But I figure that just means we're in for one heck of a sunset tonight at the hour of judgment, all hail the Sun King, right Ms. Lucia?" He says, looking to someone off screen. Dear God, no. On the screen is our new substitute, talking to the weatherman like she's been working there for years. If what she says is true about the alter being ready, then we don't have much time left.

The book explains that one day the Sun King and Queen would one day return and end the mortal world with endless light. She vowed to return and bring back her king after she was summoned. It further explained that the reason for their departure is because the Moon goddess got between them. But since she's definitely not an option now, how would we get her to stop? The only thing that comes to mind is the moon itself.

"It looks like it's up to you girls to save the world. The boys are obviously going to be no help, so it dwindles down to you four." She admits, closing the book and looking to me. I nod, but explain that it's three now that Benny accidentally turned Analis into a boy. She says something under her breath that I'm sure would've struck a chord in Benny if he were here. I ask for her help in getting Analis back to normal and she agrees, but explains it'll take her a moment to gather the stuff for the spell. I thank her and I leave to find the girls.

After texting Jane, I learn the girls are at her house contemplating on how to get rid of the sub. I tell her everything I was told by grandma and plead with her to share the message. Between the three of us, we should be able to figure out how to get rid of her with something from the moon. Jane answers back almost instantly, explaining she may have an idea and to meet the girls at the school. I thank her and start running back there, hoping we won't be too late.

* * *

When I get there, I go around the school to get a look through Mr. G's windows. The sun is beaming down directly through them and Rory is currently on the alter. I see Analis in the back of the group, paying attention to Ms. Lucia but with a look of pure terror on her face. Since Analis is initially a girl, I guess she would remain unaffected by Ms. Lucia's powers. But does Ms. Lucia know that?

I enter the school and go downstairs to find the basement, looking for paint they had leftover from events or remodeling. After several pain staking rows of stairs, I make it to the door and head inside immediately scanning the room. I look under the pipes and behind the boiler but find nothing. Then I find a small cache in the back half of the room. Under the dim lighting, I can see paint cans and try to find the darkest color possible. Magically I find two cans, almost full of black paint. I grab them and run back through the corridors and stairs, carefully trying not to splash the paint around.

By the time I make it back around by the windows outside Mr. G's class, the girls are already there and waiting for me. They're both dressed in tight black clothing and wearing what looks like motorcycle helmets.

"It's about time you get here, it's not like we can wait here all day." Erica says spitefully. I refrain from lashing back and place the buckets in front of them.

"Did you two manage to find something for the Moon goddess situation. Jane said she had an idea and I figured whatever it was you'd have brought it with you." I ask, looking between the two of them as they refuse to take off their helmets.

"I figure we can use the paint to buy us some time until we get in there." I add on, watching them look at the buckets with tilted heads.

"Ethan saved up six months allowance to buy moon rocks. I figured moon energy will be the next best thing against Ms. Lucia." Sarah says, handing the bag to me.

"Meet us inside, but don't go in without us." She continues. I roll my eyes and run my way back into the school. I'm gritting my teeth in frustration at the two of them as I make my way to Mr. G's room.

I watch through the door as Analis is burned on the Alter, obviously taken Rory's place since he's a vampire. She pleads with them to stop and they ignore her pleas as she struggles beneath them. Herself and Rory are covered in some sort of oil, so they shine when the sun hits them. Then a blinding light fills the room and everyone, including myself, looks away and when it disappears, Analis is a girl again.

"Did not see that coming." The three boys say in unison. I watch Ethan take her place as she covers herself up with the sweatshirt I gave to her earlier today.

The instant Ms. Lucia touches him, he has a vision and not but seconds later is begging to be taken off it. Trying to convince his classmates that she'll set the world on fire and kill everyone in result. But none of them listen, claiming that if it's what the queen wants, so be it. Analis walks out of the room, half naked except the sweatshirt and hugs me. I push her off after a moment and offer her my gym shorts from my locker nearby. She slides them on gratefully.

Erica and Sarah flash inside with their super speed and walk in without me. I follow behind them and slip both of them a moon rock as they take off their helmets.

"The weather girls are here with an updated forecast." Sarah says, after the two shake off the helmet hair and bring back their volume. It's clear what they were going for here and now their outfits make total sense.

"Cloudy, with a hundred percent chance of butt kicking." Erica continues, the two of them toss their helmets just as the guys gang up on them. They topple down one boy after the other and I try to make my way over to E who's still on the alter. But I'm held back by Rory and Benny who both grab one of my arms and hold me in place.

"The chosen one could use some help here!" Ethan screams at the three of us. I shout back that I'm trying to and he grunts under the restraints they tied him under. The girls finally finish off with the boys and come up behind me to smash the rocks on Rory and Benny's foreheads. They release me instantly and rub their heads as if they've had a headache.

"That is it! Where is that cutie pie from earlier? I kicked a lot of butts today, but that hot guy from this morning is nowhere to be seen. We have a date!" Erica screams, grabbing guys off the floor to stare at their unconscious faces. Sarah tries to drag her off of them, but she's stubborn.

"Why are my hands so oily?" Benny asks, looking down at his hands in confusion. Rory looks down at his own and doesn't question it. But instead notices the oil all over his body and seems even more confused about that.

"Why do I look like a basted turkey?" He asks, stretching his arms out to get a better look at them. The two of them exchange a look and the pieces click. They instantly start gagging and look away from each other. I roll my eyes and look back to Ethan.

"Has everyone forgotten that I'm even here?!" Analis screams from the doorway. Erica and Sarah look to her and see the sun markings poke out from her sweatshirt. Then Benny and Rory look to her and see the oil on her chest, it shines just like Rory's. They exchange glances and nod in happiness as they high five and cheer. It dawns on them they still let each touch them all over and start gagging again. Erica looks to Analis and back to the boys, as if putting the pieces together and her eyes glow furiously. Sarah holds her back as I run over to E.

"Purify the Earth with eternal fire my Sun King!" Ms. Lucia screams, holding the crystal skull above Ethan as the sunlight hits it from the now broken window. I slide the moon rock over to Ethan and he presses it to her forehead with force. Sarah looks over to E and I shouting,

"Here's a final offering, from the Moon goddess!"

Ms. Lucia screams in pain and walks off from Ethan, dropping her skull and I watch it shatter into pieces. She soon dissolves into nothing but ash and dust in the middle of the room. Slowly the boys begin to regain consciousness as Sarah and I untie E, Everyone has questions as I stand there completely dumbfounded over what just happened. Ethan slides off the alter and engulfs me in a hug.

* * *

The next day at school Ethan walks up to Sarah's locker while I'm talking to her and screams,

"You smashed my moon rocks! It took me my whole life to save up for those!" clearly upset about what we had to use to defeat Ms. Lucia. I apologize but defend by saying it was the only thing that would work against her.

"I just saved your whole life, for free!" Sarah retorts. She puts back a book and grabs a different one as she looks to him again.

"At least you still have one, the three of us have to serve a weeks worth of detention for smashing Mr. G's skull." She sighs, leaning against her locker.

A random guy passes us as she says that and looks to us saying,

"Sweet!" with a dopey smile on his face. Sarah laughs at his comment and tries to get his attention again as he rounds the corner. The three of us us watch him look over just as he gets by.

"Not literally!" She shouts back, still smirking. He seems to frown at this fact, but it doesn't stop him from walking over to a group of guys and talking about us. Clearly pointing at us to explain where he heard it from. As Sarah sighs about her disappointment, I start to take off for class.

"Mr. G never gives out detentions, he's way too nice. You guys are gonna be legends!" E exclaims, extremely happy about this fact. Sarah scoffs at his comment and closes her locker just as Erica comes by to meet up with us.

"We prefer the term: Goddesses." She says, smirking at him. I walk off with the two of them and we leave a speechless Ethan at the lockers.


	9. Episode 3 Part 1

Ethan and I are sitting in his room celebrating his newly acquired learner's permit. He just called Benny to come over so he can surprise him with it.

"So you're totally using this as an excuse to try and get closer to Sarah, right?" I ask, poking his arm in fun. He shoves my hand off as he sighs in annoyance.

"It might help us get closer, but that's not the only reason why I'm doing this. Having to learn from my dad or mom, it's not a visual I want." He says, shuddering in disgust. I laugh in response and shove him as we laugh on his bed. I lean forward and rest my forehead on his shoulder, feeling the coolness of his denim jacket against my temple.

"I was in the middle of learning how to make an invisible sandwich! What could be so important that you had to- Oooo, no way, your learner's permit?!" Benny says, coming in after knocking on the door. Ethan handed him the permit mid sentence and now Benny's goo goo eyes over it.

"This is way more important than my invisi-BLT." He adds on, twirling the paper in his hands.

"I'm now legal to drive. As long as there's a licensed driver in the car with me." Ethan explains, very serious but still happy about the news. Benny scoffs at this and shakes his head in disappointment. I give him a flustered look from behind E.

"Need a babysitter for the car too? Lame." Benny says, still looking over the paper. Ethan looks at him expectantly as if he's waiting for something.

"And your babysitter's a hot Sarah. With a driver's license. Less lame. " Benny finally realizes, looking at Ethan with wide eyes in disbelief.

I roll my eyes at the two of them and text Rory to see if he's busy. While they're discussing finding a ride for Ethan, I check my messages for replies. The best thing about dating a vampire is the ridiculously fast texting. You're never left wondering what they're doing or if you sent something cringe worthy. About the only time I'm left waiting is when he's hunting, even then I get a picture of his location. I think they're supposed to be happy selfies, but he never shows up on camera. He often forgets that.

"You coming, Carol?" Ethan asks, waiting by the door of his room. I look up at him from my phone and have wide eyes. I haven't heard a single thing him and Benny said in the past five minutes. There was no way to hide that now.

"I'm sorry, what?" I ask, hoping he won't be annoyed. He sighs and shakes his head dismissively. I laugh nervously in response as he looks at me again.

"We're heading down the block to Malcom's garage sale. Benny says he saw a car there on the way here. Do you want to come?" He asks again. I contemplate that for a minute and picture myself with Rory instead. There's no way I'm passing that up.

"I'll pass. But let me know how it goes." I say, getting off his bed and walking over to him, We walk out together and head downstairs. Benny's waiting for Ethan at the front door, almost impatiently. As we all walk out, Benny watches me turn the corner and calls out to me.

"You're not coming with us?!" He calls across the street. Ethan bumps into Benny from behind from his sudden halt. I turn around fully to call back toward them, placing my hands around my mouth.

"Nah, but if you need me I'll be at Rory's!" I smirk as I continue to walk away. But I can't help but notice the disgusted looks on their faces. There's a shared groan of disinterest and I stifle a giggle.

* * *

"Hi, Mrs. Keaner! Is Rory in?" I ask, looking around her for his familiar face. She smiles broadly at me and welcomes me in, extending her arm.

"Carol! So good to see you, he's upstairs. Tell me, when are you two gonna get serious? I am so impatient for your inevitable wedding." She says, nudging my arm as I walk through her foyer. I nervously laugh, never fully understanding these jokes of hers.

"You're too funny, Mrs. Keaner." I retort. She smiles widely at me, her blonde hair almost bouncing happily. She ushers me into the kitchen to help her pile up a tray of drinks and snacks, then lets me by upstairs.

I tap on his door with my foot and listen for a response.

"Coming mom! Just a sec, don't come in yet!" He answers, taking a solid minute before opening the door and finally realizing it's me.

"Babe!" He yells, pouncing me with the tray still in my hands.

"Rory, the tray." I squeak, trying to refrain from breathing and killing my ribcage more. Rory's cute, but sometimes he forgets just how strong he is when he's excited. He lets me go and grabs the tray from my hands.

"Sorry, Carol. I must be a gentleman, let me help you carry this in." He says, leaning against his door so I can walk into his room. I clutch my side and sigh softly, trying to ignore the throbbing in my ribs. He closes the door behind him and sets the tray on his bed.

"So tell me, what were you doing that your mom couldn't see?" I ask, smirking as I look at his sabre lying next to his mirror. He chuckles nervously and tosses the light sabre to the other side of the room. I stifle more giggles before sitting on his bed.

"So, what's the plan, love bunch?" He asks, sitting in a love seat and chowing down on some pretzels. I stare at him, completely bewildered at this new nickname. His expression hasn't changed in this slightest, even after seeing my new face.

"I was thinking maybe we could have an indoor pool day and then curl up with popcorn and movies? Or did you have other plans for today?" I ask, tilting my head as I look at him. Almost instantly his eyes widen and light up. The smile on his face is wide and almost child like. God, he's such a dork.

"Be right back!" He yells, dashing out of his room. I stare at the spot where he used to be and shake my head to shake off whatever suspicions pop up.

"I'm back!" He cries, almost a minute later. His arms are filled with pool toys and goggles, while his attire is flip flops and pool shorts.

"How did you-" I start to ask. He rushes over and places his finger on my lips to shush me. The assortment of things in his arms are now on the floor by the closed door. I look up at him with questions in my eyes. He then proceeds to set up lawn chairs, a kid sized swimming pool and plays a list of Heckbot songs.

"Your indoor pool, awaits my lovely lady." He says with an outstretched arm toward it. I think this is the first slightly romantic thing he's done for us and it only happened because I asked him to do it with me.

"Should I leave so you can change? Or would you like assistance?" He asks, coming toward me with a hand out.

"Out!" I shout almost instantly. He scoffs, but leaves me with a pouty face. I groan in frustration and start getting undressed, leaving my clothes on his bed. My one piece is not nearly as attractive as a bikini, but I'm comfortable in it and that's all that matter.

"Is my babealicious ready?" He asks, knocking on the door. I answer and he enters with a dropped jaw, my hands reflexively cover myself out of habit.

"You're so pretty.." He says, his smile just as wide as it was earlier. The blush that sets in on my face is practically instantaneous.

"Even when you're blushing you're a cutie." He says with a small chuckle.

"Hush up, Rory." I say, pushing him on the arm. I was hoping it would push him out of the room, but it didn't move him an inch.

"Why must you be so thick?" I shout, hitting his arm.

"Ow!" He says, rubbing the spot that I hit. I smirk at him and make my way over to the kiddie pool. The two of us sit inside snugly, but I get the strongest feeling he did this deliberately.

"What do you say we get to some canoodling?" He asks with a smirk.

I roll my eyes, but let him put his arm around me. He sighs contentedly and squeezes me toward me.

"Don't you get enough canoodling throughout the week during school when you surprise attack me?" I ask, looking over to him. He shakes his head, almost seriously and kisses my temple.

"Absolutely not. Those are specially reserved for the lunchroom." He says, looking to me with a candid look on his face. I roll my eyes and smile at him, kissing his forehead before grabbing his face and kissing him.

"So forceful! I like it!" He says, pulling me in deeper for the kiss. I laugh as one kiss turns into several and we wrap our arms around each other.

"Oh baby!" He shouts, getting too excited and biting my lips with his fangs.

"Rorykins!" I shout, touching my lips and applying pressure to the now bleeding spot. My boyfriend can be dorky and at times very sweet, but then he does things like this and I have to kill him.


	10. Episode 3 Part 2

"How many times do I have to apologize?" Rory whines, pouting behind me as we walk into school. I roll my eyes at him and make my way towards my second home. My locker isn't the greatest of sizes and it can often have an odor on Taco Tuesdays, but it's always welcoming to come to after grueling classes.

"Caroollll!" He whines, leaning against the locker beside mine. His lips in a full pout and wide doe eyes to go with them.

"Rory! The whining is not cute and I'm still mad at you." I snap, slamming my books into my locker and sighing in exasperation.

"Or did you forget that you tried to bite my face off?!" I shout, retrieving my books for classes in first period.

"I'm sorry! You know I get fangy when I'm excited." He replies with a disgruntled face. I feel him following me as I make my way through the hallways.

"What can I do to make it up to you?" He asks, coming up beside me.

I try to ignore the stares as I walk past my classmates with bandages on my upper and lower lips. It's bad enough that I'm the new kid, but now I have an obvious physical flaw. All it takes is one person to say something, or brand me with a nickname about this and that's all I'll be known for. I spent all last night worrying about this, adding dark circles to the mix as well. I'm ignoring Rory's pleas as these thoughts bounce around, when I notice everyone ignores me as soon as Benny and Ethan walk through the halls.

"Why is everyone practically jumping away from you guys and hugging the walls?" I ask as we meet up. Sarah and Erica are already there talking to them, looking very unbelieving to whatever they've just told them. The two walk off just as Analis comes up from behind them.

"Wait, do I even want to know?" I ask, my head tilted and Rory leaving my side to place his hands on both Benny and Ethan's shoulders.

"Don't worry, guys. My first time flying, I rear ended a 7-47. I hate airline food, am I right?" He jokes, removing his hands as we all start walking down the hallway. From this comment, I can only gather that something happened with Ethan's driving lesson. I'm questioning yet again if I want to know this information or stay blissfully ignorant to the situation.

"Shaquisha, why is it that once the guys get together, we always get placed on the back burner?" Analis asks with a disgruntled sigh.

"Also, why are wearing two bandages as lip accessories?" I chuckle at her crack at me and shake my head in response. Both answers would take too long to answer before the end of first period.

"You! You tried to run me over!" A thin Caucasian guy yells at Ethan. His hair is shaggy, almost curly as it falls down past his ears. But I'm too busy staring at the crutches he's holding to his body and the bandages on his right forearm and thigh, to notice how attractive he could be.

"I better get my car back by the end of today, or I am calling the police and I'm gonna have your permit revoked. REVOKED!" He shouts at him, his finger pointed at his chest and the anger spewing off of him.

"Your bandages are leaking." Rory says with a sigh. The guys look as concerned as I feel, when the guys walks off and Rory follows after. I'm going to take a wild guess that he was the Malcom they went to go see yesterday and it sounds like it went horrible. But now I have to refrain my boyfriend from making him into an early lunch.

"Latoya, I'm sorry girl, but I have to follow my idiotic boyfriend or he's going to do something ridiculous." I say in a whisper. She widens her mouth in shock and playfully shoves me.

"You know you're secretly dying anyway, because you and Benny have homeroom together now." I point out, just before the bells rings, signaling the start of our day.

"Go get your man, Shaquisha." She says with a smile.

"But just know, I am going to want details later about all of this." She adds, circling her finger round her mouth. I roll my eyes but nod and take off after Rory, chasing him down the hallway and almost knocking him into the lockers. Latoya's curiosity about my lip incident could wait till later.

* * *

It's around lunch time when I bring Rory out from the random locker I stuffed him in, and bring him to the parking lot. I didn't lock it and he could've walked out of it at any time he wanted, but he didn't think to try the handle to see if I locked it or not. He grabs a quick snack outside and it eases his hunger from Malcom's bandages. Then notices me leaning against the hood of a random car, and leans against the side of it with me.

"You still mad?" He asks, his whining nonexistent and his tone of voice very normal. I watch him trace his fingertips along my ring and the back of my hand. There's a silence between us as I question that myself. I haven't spoken to him since my locker this morning and our texts have been dead. Right now, there isn't one person I miss more.

"No." I answer softly. He looks to meet my gaze and we smile at each other before he hugs me tight.

"But you're still an idiot and make out sessions are going to be very lax from now on." I retort, resting my forehead against his chest. The bandages around my mouth are still very irritating to me. I've had three teachers today ask me what happened and I've only had one class.

"You're kinda cute with bandages. Did I tell you that this morning?" He teases, poking my side so I'll look up at him. I glare at him and back away as I cover my mouth with my hand.

"Stop, it's not that bad." He says, trying to see.

"Did you ever finish your math homework after I left your house?" I ask, trying to shift the attention off of me. He hits his forehead with the palm of his hand and reaches for his cell phone.

"I'll take that as a no." I retort, lowering my hand and watching him call Ethan. There's suddenly a loud commotion in front of us as a kid is wheeled away into an ambulance.

"Nothing, I was wondering if you did the math homework yet. Also, did you savagely chew Derek Malvern with your car?" He asks, listening to the guy on the stretcher screaming for Ethan's permit to be revoked.

"Really? Cause that's not what everyone thinks." He says, holding out his phone for Ethan to hear the screams.

"THIS IS ALL ETHAN MORGAN'S FAULT! WHERE ARE YOU MORGAN? I'M COMING FOR YOU ETHAN! REVOKE ETHAN MORGAN'S PERMIT! REVOKE HIS PERMIT!" I stare at him in shock and look in the direction that Rory's staring in. There's a red convertible that looks almost brand new sitting in the student parking lot. I'd bet my entire summer's pay that this was the car causing all the mischief.

"Alright, look. I have to get back to class. But please keep me informed okay? I want to be there when you guys figure out what's going on here. Also, tell Benny to stop ignoring his girlfriend. I'm beginning to think the honeymoon phase is dying out." I say, grabbing the side of his head and kissing his cheek. I flinch and put my hand to my mouth in pain. Sighing, I walk off and watch the guys round the corner and meet up with my boyfriend.

* * *

All day I receive updates via text about the crash with Ethan and Malcom. Then, almost the same incident happens with Derek Malvern in the school parking lot. Since everyone already knew Ethan was the last one who had that car, everyone blamed him. Lastly, after we all got out of school the car went missing because of a spell gone wrong with Benny and chased after Ronnie Barnstorm. Benny looked it up after they got home and learned all three are part of the Manfred Bruner family tree.

This car has been in nothing but weird accidents with that family since it was made. But there was a mechanic who worked on the car that ties in with this story. Jacob, the mechanic, was a cunning vampire who worked for the Bruner family. But there wasn't a definite way for Manfred Bruner to fire him without knowing he was going to come back. There was an…accident involving a wooden spike with Jacob behind the wheel. According to Ethan, Jacob came back to get the revenge he couldn't get. Now the gang is going to set up the car tonight to think it's chasing Richard Bruner, the last victim.

We're all in the garage as we wait for Rory and Ethan with the car. Why my boyfriend had to be the one that was playing the victim, is beyond me. But these are the sacrifices I have to make for Whitechapel. Benny and Erica are setting up chains that hold three rakes in place for the car to run over. Analis and I are hanging back with Sarah as we look for signs for Ethan and Rory.

"Here it comes!" Benny shouts, him and Erica jumping out of the way and watching each tire pop. Rory turns around and starts walking back toward the car. Ethan climbs out of it, laughing because it actually worked. The group of us gather around the front of the car and Rory takes out a vial full of Richard's blood.

"Ha! Fooled ya! It was me, Rory. Not Richard Bruner, grandson of Manfred Bruner." He says. I ruffle his hair to try and fix it from being flat. Wearing a wig does horrible things to his hair.

The car is instantly pissed that it's been fooled and starts revving it's engine at Rory. The blood is tossed from person to vampire repeatedly, until Ethan grabs it and takes off with it. He stands on a rig, waiting for the car to follow him. But Sarah, Rory and Erica all hold it back from going after him. Benny, Analis and I are all off to the side with Analis holding on tightly to Benny's arm.

Benny insists they let go, explaining Ethan has a plan that can be heard in his voice. As soon as they let go, it flies after him. Ethan jumps off to the side as the car shifts at the last minute, flipping it onto it's roof. Ethan grabs a wooden plank that ends in a point and tries to stab the car through the engine. But Sarah has to take over at the last minute, because Ethan can't pierce it.

E tosses the vial over to Rory,

"Here Rory, you earned it." he says with a smile. As he catches it, Erica makes a fit about how she should be the one getting it. The two begin to quarrel, wrestling over the vial between their hands. Benny smiles as Analis and I back away and holds his hands up.

"Sominom Vis Cathra Arba Sinar!" He shouts, touching both of them and making them pass out instantly. The two of us stare in shock as we just learn he could do this.

"It was nothing." He says with a smug smirk on his face.

"Benny, you use this on me once and we are over, got that?" Analis says in a tone. He nods in understanding and I laugh at the two of them. But Benny then realizes that he'll be left cleaning up the mess with Ethan and Sarah. Analis and I watch as he uses the spell on himself.

"Can you believe him?" Analis asks, kicking his shin and looking to where Sarah and Ethan were standing. But we both see they left us behind with the mess and the three unconscious bodies.

"I hope they don't think we're gonna be the new clean up squad." Analis says, her sass at max level.

"Let's go home, Latoya. I'm tired and my bandages need changing." I say, already walking off. She links arms with me and on the way home I explain how I ended up with these bandages. I'm so glad she's here to keep my head on straight, especially when everything else seems to fall apart around us.


	11. Episode 4 Part 1

A week later, my bandages gone and canine piercings added, I'm about to walk out the door. The new holes around my mouth were not a favorite of my parents, but I've explained that eventually the holes will close up with time. But since they were already there, I might as well embrace them. If they left ugly scars, I would welcome them. This, of course, didn't stop them from grounding me for the last week, but how else was I going to explain the holes in my lips from my vampire boyfriend?

They also added before I left to keep an eye out for weirdos, apparently some disappearances were happening around Whitechapel and they wanted me to be careful. I nodded in response and reminded them about my working at Lotta Late tonight. Ever since Sarah took her old job back as Ethan and Jane's babysitter, I lost mine. So now I'll be working there three nights out of the week and during alternate weekends. But with this new epidemic, I wonder if I'll have to drop a couple shifts.

"Babe!" Rory yells, waving me over across the street. I wave back and run over to him, meeting up with Latoya as she rounds the corner.

"My best bud's babealicious, how's it hanging?" Rory says with a smile, his hand high in the air for a high five. Analis stares at him incredulously.

"I have a name, Rory. Don't make me backhand you before school." She threatens, the look of death in her expression.

"It is too early for this and I haven't had my coffee yet." She complains, grudgingly shuffling her feet as we walk to school.

"Someone wake up late again?" I tease, but also out of curiosity.

"Were you up being a fan warrior again about your recent anime?" I ask, trying to lighten the mood. But just like Rory, I receive the look of death and am completely ignored.

"Don't even start with me this morning, Shaquisha. I am not afraid to kick you in the crotch." She threatens with a glare. I sigh and roll my eyes at her, linking arms with Rory instead. I love my best friend, but she's as chipper as walking into a cheese grater while having third degree burns in the morning.

By the time we get to school, I head to my locker and get ready for first period while Latoya goes looking for Benny. Now more than ever before, I do not want to be him. Rory walks with me as we go walking off after her, because where there's a Benny, there's an Ethan. She practically pushes past people, looking for Benny. Her scowl increasing looking at all the plastic cups from Lotta Late in people's hands.

"Benny!" She shouts, finally spotting him as he walks down the next hallway. Ethan stands right beside him, both of them looking the nerdiest I've ever seen them. They're hair is slicked down to their scalps, almost as if they used gel to keep it that way or they left the shampoo in.

"I need coffee, NOW!" She shouts, practically slamming him against a locker as she grabs fistfuls of his striped shirt.

"Nice look, guys." Rory says in between laughter. Everyone that passes by us, points and stares at the guys' new hairdo. I shake my head in disbelief that they let this happen. Benny stumbles over his words, but finally conjures up an acceptable coffee. Analis gulps it down happily and sinks down to the floor in contentment.

"Yeah, yeah. Our showers cut out this morning before we could rinse." Ethan defends, looking to Benny.

"Our whole street lost water pressure." He adds, his face pitiful as he looks back to Rory. I never pegged Benny as a morning shower guy.

"See this is exactly why I take my showers at night. You don't have to hustle to get ready in the morning and deal with incidents like this." I say, tilting my head to stare at the two of them. Grabbing a strand of E's hair and bringing it up to a point, wiping the residue left behind on my jeans.

Rory goes into a laugh fit as he thinks the two were showering together, but Ethan quickly puts that assumption to rest.

"Actually, I was in the middle of a deep conditioning cycle." Benny adds, playing with a strand of his own hair.

"What?! Not everyone is born with hair this thick and shiny." He defends, pouting a bit as Analis finally comes up to join the conversation.

"There is no one at this school who has it worse than us." Ethan says in a huff. I give a half chuckle in response as Analis finally asks what happened to the guys' hair. It takes explaining from me on their behalf, and explaining on hers to them, because I already know that while her eyes were open it didn't mean her brain or her ears were on.

* * *

It's after lunch and Latoya and I are in the girl's bathroom talking about this morning, when Sarah comes running in.

"Sarah, you okay?" I ask. Latoya and I exchange a look of concern as I knock on her stall door. She answers that she's fine, but she doesn't sound okay. A girl goes into the stall next to hers and we shrug it off as a bad lunch.

Just as we're about to leave, we hear screaming coming the other girl's stall.

"Whoa, AHH, HELP!" She screams, the sound of toilet water moving heard directly after. There's a loud crunch and several glass like pieces falling to the floor. Analis and I look to one another, trying to decide what to do about what we've just heard.

"Get the nurse!" Sarah screams after us, Latoya goes running after her and I stay behind. I walk over and knock on her door, asking if she's okay. There's no answer. Sarah comes out of her stall just in time for Analis and the nurse to get back. They both knock on the stall door as Analis steps back, curious about what happened to the girl in the stall. She crouches down to try and get a look under the stall walls.

I go in the stall Sarah was just in and climb on top the toilet rim, holding onto the wall for support. Sarah gets the same idea and looks over the wall with me. There's a red sneaker on the floor and the toilet bowl is smashed to pieces, the seat completely unhinged. Both the floor and the wall where the pipes are, have long and deep cracks along them. Inside the bowl is pitch black water, almost marsh like. Whatever happened to her, she's not here now and I don't wanna know what got her.

Sarah chases off the nurse and after she leaves she reaches under to grab the shoe. Inside the hem where the toes would be is a large tooth.

"What is that?!" Analis shouts in disgust. Her eyes widen and her face scowls at the look of it. Sarah shakes her head in disgust and flies out of the bathroom. We follow after her, she's already got her phone up to her ear to call Ethan.

She's so frantic, she bumps right into him as he and Benny come walking down the hall.

"You scared me!" She shouts, practically hitting him as we catch up to them.

"Look, we need to talk," She adds, walking away fast from the bathroom. They cut her off before she can explain and say the exact same thing.

"Something terrible just happened to Kate in the bathroom, it's like something came up-" She starts, but Ethan finishes.

"Came up through the pipes?" He adds, she nods in agreement with him.

"I think whatever it was, came to the Home Ec room looking for dessert." He says, looking from both Benny and Sarah with a complete straight face.

"But what is it?" Latoya asks, still in shock from the bathroom. They all shake their heads, stumped by what they've found.

"I know one thing, I'm never using the bathrooms here again." She jokes, looking to Benny as the two smile and point their fingers at each other. They're so perfect for each other that it's actually sickening.

We all agree we should take a look at where the pipes lead to get a better idea of what we're dealing with. So the five of us take off down multiple flights of stairs and the closer we get to the basement, the creepier the stairs get.

"Maybe there's a reason the basement is off limits." Benny says with a nervous chuckle. They slide closer to the railing on the wall as a weird thump is heard, randomly in the distance. We're about to reach the final steps as the lights start flickering in the stairwell until they go out completely. Ethan says it must have bit through a power line while Benny and him dig flashlights out of their book bags.

As we reach the ground floor, I spread out from the group and look around to see if there's any pipes nearby. The others are clustered together, Analis almost directly behind Benny. Suddenly another loud crash is heard, making us all jump in response.

"Whatever that thing is, it's the world's greatest klutz." Benny jokes, looking around.

"Hey guys!" Rory shouts, zooming up to them with his super speed. They all gasp in shock at him and I jump on him from behind, giggling at his jump. Benny and Analis start yelling at him, asking him what he's doing down here.

"Looking for a snack, what else?" He asks, completely hurt by their accusations.

"We thought you were.." Ethan says, looking behind Rory and I. His words start to stumble in his fear,

"Th-th-that!" he shouts. He points at a gator, just outside the doors leading out. We're all looking in shock as it seems to glow in the dark.

"How is that an alligator?!" E screams, completely astounded.

"Uh, guys, remember that random locker search a couple months back?" Rory asks.

"I was supposed to go back to get them after it was over, I thought they'd be safe there!" Rory defends, trying to make us see reason. I stare at him in complete disbelief. Then Benny adds in how his jock potion must've made them bulk up in size.

"You know, you're all missing the vital point in that story. One: Benny didn't flush the toilet after dumping the jock potion. So even if Rory had gone back, they'd still be the size they are now. Two? Benny was the one who ultimately flushed them, NOT Rory." I defend, hitting Benny upside the head.

"Well, I mean, if you put it in so many words." He says, his nervous chuckle coming back. I glare at him and hit him upside the head again. This time Analis grabs my hand and smacks the back of my head.

"Don't you touch a hair on his wittle head!" She shouts, defending her boyfriend. I tilt my head and glare at her. I know she is seriously not in agreement with him right now.

"I'll touch whatever hairs on his 'wittle' head I want to!" I snap, just as stubborn and childish. We both give each other a stare down as Benny looks from the two of us with a smirk. Rory taking notice too.

"I don't think I like this." Rory says, his frown coming through. Benny cracks a joke about he never thought mutant gators would get him two girls fighting over him. Earning him a slap on the back of the head from both Analis and I.


	12. Episode 4 Part 2

After Rory, Sarah and the guys trapped the one gator in the supply closet at school and the other was caught by local animal rescue, Analis and I thought we were safe. We figured with the weather still so nice, we'd take Tad McMan up on his offer and go to his pool party that he invited us to. We got in our swimsuits, walked all the way there and headed inside with no worries. That is until, we both got the message that the gang was meeting up at his house to catch the third alligator on the loose. Rory was still very proud he became a matchmaker.

"So, the gator is somewhere in the sewers and on it's way here. That's, that's just great. Why is it that we can't have one normal social function around here?!" I shout, pouting as I cross my arms and lean against his mansion walls.

"How are you not more pissed at this?" I ask Latoya.

"Do you see how many cute guys there are here?" She says, looking from one shirtless guy to another. I watch her slowly flock over to a table and grab a drink, just to accidently brush arms with one of them.

"Oh my gosh, girl, they're so good looking!" She says when she returns. I roll my eyes at her.

Sarah and Erica arrive first, making their way through the party and socializing with random people before getting to the back. Erica can't wait to dive into the good looking people here.

"Kinda like picking your own lobster at Captain Pinchey's." She says to Sarah, who lets out a very obvious fart. The guys come up right behind her as it happens, all of them taking on the full brunt of the smell.

Sarah quickly walks to the bathroom and Erica explains she's gassy from overeating. I didn't know that was a thing with vampires and now I'm kinda regretting ever saying I wanted to be one.

"I'm gonna go for a snack," Erica says, scouring the crowd looking for her next meal.

"I think I'm in the mood for a blond." She adds on, pointing at one guy in particular and walking straight toward him like a predator with it's prey.

Ethan quickly steals the microphone from Tad at the music turn table and warns everyone of the gator. Instantly getting everyone laughing at him, he puts himself in these situations.

"Ladies, fancy seeing you here. All dressed up I see. Is it for…moi?" Benny asks as him and Rory dance in our direction.

"Benny, you wish. Rory, sweetie, why do you hang out with this neanderthal?" I ask, watching him come over by me as I hold his hand. He shrugs and I use his shoulder as a pillow. You'd think for a vampire that he'd be too bony or hard to lay on, but he's still just as comfortable as a human.

"Benny wabbit! I swear, I am going to hit you upside the head again if you don't quit flirting up my best friend. Don't make me flirt shamelessly with the other guys here, because I will!" Latoya threatens, not even breaking eye contact with him. He looks genuinely scared and shocked at this statement and straightens up his act almost instantly.

"Babe, you know I was just playing right? There's no one else, you know that. This Benny wabbit only has eyes for you." He says, almost pleadingly.

"Carol, tell her I was just kidding. You know I was just messing around." He begs, his hands out in a open gesture.

"I don't know, Latoya. I don't think he's sorry at all." I tease, his eyes widen in response.

"I think it's about time you leveled the playing field." I add on, her eyes sparkle in enjoyment.

"There's tons of cute guys here, right? Get to work, you're running out of time." Analis practically runs off after the cutie pie she met at the table. With Benny following directly after her.

"You wanna know why I love having you as my boyfriend?" I ask Rory, his head perking up at the mention of his name.

"Why's that?" He asks, rather innocently with a genuine expression.

"Is it because of my manly good looks?" He inquires, posing for a picture that no one is taking.

"My great sense of humor?" He adds on.

"Or these babies?" He asks, shooting his fangs out. I cover his mouth and scold him, telling him to put them back on.

"None of those things." I start, playfully shoving him. He frowns slightly at this realization and looks to me again.

"It's because no matter what happens between us throughout these misadventures, or however many comments the guys make, you always come back to me." I answer truthfully. He smiles widely, like a small child given his toy on Christmas.

"Carol, I'm always going to come back to you. Because every time I need you to be there, you are and no matter what stupid thing I do, you always forgive me. Most girls would've dumped me by now. Even my mom knows I got lucky when I met you." He says, sliding his hand against the back of his head in nervousness. He can't even look me in the eye, he's so nervous.

"So if you promise to be there, I promise to stay. No matter what we are." He adds in, finally looking up to meet my gaze. His face is serious for the first time since I met him.

There's no holding back when I hold his face with one hand and kiss him. His hand intertwines with mine tightly as we kiss, telling me all his nerves bundled up. Then as the kiss slows, his hand releases mine slowly and we're back to how we were when our friends left us. I give him one final kiss on the forehead as I whisper I promise and watch him pull me in for a quick peck on the lips.

"I really do think you look cute in your one piece, the piercings are a nice touch too." He says with a smile, I shove him playfully and watch our friends return.

We all walk over to an empty table as Ethan starts beinging out ingrediants to make a cocktail of sorts for the sewer gator. Erica watches them sort through everything to make sure they're putting them in right.

"You know, it's scary how good at this you guys are." She teases, looking at a vial of powder.

"But your porportions are off, you need more soda." She says matter of factly. Ethan grabs the vial from her and looks it over again.

"How did you know that?" Rory asks, after Ethan agrees with her. She looks down, almost sadly as if she didn't want to be right. I would kill to have that brain power and she doesn't want it?

"Because before she was a smokin' hot vampire, she was a mega nerd remember?" Benny says with a smirk. He looks down at his work and doesn't even see Erica coming when she grabs him by the collar. Her eyes are glowing orange and her fangs are out.

She hisses at him as she says,

"Remind anyone of that again and you're toast, get it?!" she threatens. He jumps in response and shrinks in his seat, I can see Latoya ready to kill right behind him. He stares up at her with a tight lipped expression on his face. When he agrees, she backs off of him and Ethan's phone starts beeping.

"It's coming, who's gonna be the bait?" Ethan asks, mixing more of the ingredients into the soda. Everyone starts pointing fingers at each other, Latoya and myself included. Benny offering me up as bait in a vocal opinion.

"Come on guys, who's gonna be the bait?" He asks again. The three of them stare at each other sternly and put out their hands.

"ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS, LIZARD, SPOCK!" They shout in unison. The three put up weird hand signals and Benny groans in annoyance.

Rory looks to an annoyed Erica and starts explaining why he won, but Erica shows no interest explaining to him that she doesn't care.

"So why does Lizard beat Spock?" I ask, curious how this works. He begins going into great detail about how the lizard portion poisons Spock, therefore declaring him victorious. I nod in agreement as we make our way over to the hot tub where the gator is showing up.

Benny and Ethan are changed into swimsuits from their pervious crocidle hunter suits and linger around. Almost instantly the gator shows up, popping his head out of the hot tub and ready to bite. Ethan mixes in the last of the potion and has Rory cover the hot tub to keep it contained. Benny helps him as Analis and I linger in the back with Erica. E can't find a right time to shove the potion into his mouth without getting bit in the process, so Erica comes over and grabs the bottle from his hands and shoves it into the gator's mouth.

Within seconds the entire five foot radius of us is covered in gator body parts. Ethan has some inner organ all on his shoulder and Analis and I are covered in slime from it's intestines. We're caked in it and I'm pointing my face away from myself to get rid of the odor. Tad comes over and tells the boys they can stay at their party now, but Ethan has to tell Sarah to stop polluting the bathroom. The next five minutes is Ethan freaking out because Tad called her Ethan's girlfriend. He sent us home though, stating we were polluting the party with the stench from the gator….I didn't blame him. But Analis and I knew our pool party days were over.

* * *

The next day at school I could swear that the smell was still there, but maybe it was just in my head. Analis however, came to school wearing shades and a hoodie….in ninety degree weather. I didn't fully understand until she explained that she thought she still smelled as well. I guess hiding your face from your classmates is one way to go. We met up with the girls and started walking to class with them, when they didn't wince, we knew it had to be in our heads. If anything the smell was just stuck in our noses.

As we rounded the corner, I saw something I wish I hadn't. Benny, Rory and Ethan all wearing alligator skin accessories. Benny was sporting a hat and socks, Ethan was wearing boots and Rory had on a tooth necklace and underwear. But Sarah wouldn't let him finish that statement, I silently thanked her. Benny came up from behind Analis and surprised her with a tooth necklace and tried to put it on her.

"Get that thing away from me. I am not wearing teeth around my neck." She says, swatting the gift away. He whines and chases after her as she tries to get away from it. Rory holds up two teeth on a hook, I'm assuming they're meant to be earrings. I sigh and take them from him with a small smile.

"They're a set, necklace for me….earrings for you. Sorta like….for couples." He says with an impish grin. I give a half laugh and have him put them on for me. They're not as heavy as I anticipated them to be, it's a small plus. But not long after Sarah reminds them of the gator still locked in the supply closet and E grabs Benny after he runs through again and drags him with them. Analis stares at my earrings in disgust, but sighs and wears her necklace proudly.


	13. Episode 5 Part 1

We were still in the kitchen, baking away and gossiping about everything under the sun. Although, I was doing more of the actual baking and Analis was sampling bowls and spoons. We've made brownies, a spice cake and we're on our third batch of homemade chocolate chip cookies. She's on her third story of the night about her and Benny's escapades through his spell book. I don't think she's realized I haven't had any story time yet. But she's so animated as she goes into detail, I don't have the heart to stop her.

This is how we used to go through stuff we've missed in Chicago. If she ever had to go on vacay with her family, or I ever had to go with my parents for their museum functions, we'd come back and hole up in the kitchen. Once there, we'd go through every detail about what we couldn't talk about over the phone. Since we haven't really had any bonding time with all this supernatural stuff, and our boyfriends take up our time now…this seemed appropriate.

"But anyway, I told him that the next time he tried to conjure up a shrunken head, to make sure I was no where near him." She says with a chuckle. I smile along with her and take out the third batch of cookies while putting in the fourth.

"You two are still good though? There isn't an awkward phase yet in your relationship?" I ask, more for myself than hers. She shakes her head no in response, but watches me closely.

"Well that's good then." I admit, starting on the ever growing pile of dishes.

"Is there an awkward phase between you and Rory?" She asks, looking at me in between playing phone tag with Benny. I stare at the soapy mixing bowl in my hands and think of his face. The way he's been avoiding me lately, has really been putting a strain on things.

"He's just been weird lately. Like, I get being busy with vampire stuff and all the supernatural things that go on around here. But it's like, even when he has time to himself, he chooses to spend it with anyone else but me. Which is fine, he can do what he wants, it's just….now we're awkward around each other because we don't know what to say." I admit, finishing up the last of the dishes. She stares at me with compassion and gives me a side hug.

"I'm gonna kill him." She says after she lets go. I watch her start to walk off and quickly dry my hands and turn off the sink in a hurry. She starts grabbing her jacket to head out the door and I have to practically jump on her to get her to stop.

"Get off me, Shaquisha! Your boyfriend has to die for hurting my best friend." She says in a determined huff.

"Later! You can kill him later, right now I need a Dusk movie-vention and my best friend." I say, loosening my grip on her. She sighs in frustration but shrugs, dropping her jacket on the table by my door.

"Besides, we still have cookies to finish baking in the kitchen. Not to mention the dozen we're going to demolish in the movie watching process." I admit with a smile.

She walks with me back in the kitchen and helps me put in the last batch of cookies and starts making a bag for Benny. I roll my eyes at her, but secretly envy her position right now. More than anything, I would kill to be able to make a goodie bag for Rory that he can enjoy. But unless ninety percent of the ingredients are plasma, he can't eat them. I love having a vampire boyfriend, but sometimes it's heart breaking.

* * *

The next day at school, we're about to find seats at lunch when we see Sarah sitting at a table with Benny, Ethan and a hockey player. It's like we're trying to set up for a murder mystery, but we're not.

"Yeah, I'm so not on that team." I hear Sarah say, watching her leave the table. We walk over to them and stare at the two of them in confusion.

"Why are you two in hockey jerseys?" I ask, looking to the two of them. Analis is already all over Benny, he makes a set available to her.

"There's no way you two survived try outs to be actual team players." I tease, looking from both Benny and E.

"Actually, Carol, we did make the team. We're the newest members of the White Chapel hockey team." Benny says with a smirk.

"We've already got groupies, right?" He says, nodding his head at a couple girls behind me. They wave at him as he smirks.

"Let's get one thing straight, Benny wabbit. I don't care how many groupies you think you have, you are mine. Got that?" Analis says, grabbing him by the collar and pulling him toward her. He nods nervously and sighs when she finally lets him go.

"We made you guys treats." She says, handing Benny his goodie bag. I take Ethan's bag off my lunch tray and hand it to him.

"Let's just say we went a little overboard with the baking." Analis says with a small chuckle.

"Your gift of goodies gets you a seat at the players table." Ethan says, patting the seat next to him. I shake my head in response, but smile at the offer.

"Boltz, can we interest you in a cookie?" E asks, shaking the bag in front of their new member. Boltz grunts in response and Ethan takes it as a no.

"I'll pass on the seat, but have you guys seen Rory anywhere?" I ask, looking around for him. Normally he's all over Ethan and Benny, trying to get into whatever shenanigans they've gotten themselves involved in. But today, I don't even see him in the line for extra food from the lunch ladies.

"Sorry, no. Still no luck with him?" Ethan asks, already knowing about my problems with Rory. I shake my head in response and sigh, watching Analis feed Benny one of the brownies we made. She wipes at the excess chocolate around his mouth.

"It can't be as bad as you think it is." E says, trying to comfort me.

"I don't even know what to think, E. It'd be easier if I had something to go off of, but I don't. Instead I'm left feeling tons of emotions that I don't know what to do with and not having my boyfriend there to talk to about them." I sigh, feeling a hot wave of frustrated tears coming on. Ethan gets up from his seat, trying to come and comfort me.

"It's fine. I'm fine. I'm sorry for dragging you into this. It really is great that you and Benny are on the hockey team now. I can't wait to see you guys on the ice…if you ever get to play. Keep me posted." I say, walking away and biting my tongue to suppress more tears.

As I'm walking out of the lunch room, I can't help but notice this kid watching me from one of the tables by the door. I don't get a good look at him, just seeing him from my peripheral view. But something about the look he gave me tells me it's not the last I'll hear of him. He looked like a skater type, maybe he's going to tell me I should leave the tears for prom night.

I lean against the wall outside the lunchroom and slide my way down to the floor in a sitting position. Wiping away whatever tears spill over with the palm of my hands. My struggle to keep the crying from coming out is getting tougher the more I think of Rory. But this isn't the place for any of these emotions and I'm just embarrassing myself in school. Where was Rory when I needed him?

"One of these might help." I hear in a soft and low voice above me. I look up and see the same kid from earlier, holding a stack of tissues from the lunchroom.

"Take them, they're not doing me any good." He jokes, smiling as I take them from his hand. I watch him lift his pant legs just before he sits next to me on the floor. I thank him as I wipe my face with one of the tissues.

"No problem. I have sisters, I'm used to this sort of thing." He says, looking over to me and watching my eyes with a gentle precision.

"Let me guess, it's about a guy right?" He asks, getting comfortable against the wall. I watch him bend his knees to his chest and lay his arms around his knees. His head is pressed against the wall as he stares up at nothing in particular.

I ask if it's that obvious.

"Kinda." He jokes. We half laugh at the comment and I already feel the tightness in my chest going away. He sighs beside me and I smile at the ground, a bit confused about this situation.

"No offense, but why are you out here right now? You could be eating lunch and hanging out with your friends. But you're here, listening to me half cry over some guy you probably don't even know." I ask, genuinely curious. He shifts his weight a little towards me and looks to me.

"I hate seeing girls cry. It's been that way since I was a kid. I remember hugging my mom on Christmas one year because her gifts made her so happy that she cried. I didn't want to see them, even if they were happy ones." He admits, giving me a half smile and shuffling his feet a bit.

"It sucks even more when the girl is cute." He says without a hitch.

"Oh." I say, looking away from his gaze and blushing at his comment.

"Who are you again?" I ask, laughing at my attempt to change the subject. After he introduces himself as Joshua, I tell him my name and we shake hands. It's now that I really look at him for the first time.

His dark brown hair is hidden under a gray beanie, fit snugly but still loose around his head. He has an athletic build hidden under a navy blue hoodie and is wearing dark gray sweatpants with dark blue vans. I love the soft but jagged socket his green eyes are in. They fit his soft but rounded face perfectly. His nose is long but thin and ends in a point at the tip. He's got slight stubble around his chin and jaw line. The gages in his ears are what put me over the edge though.

"Wanna have lunch with me?" He asks. I lose my words for a moment, but eventually nod in response. This isn't cheating, right? It's just lunch….I hope.


	14. Episode 5 Part 2

After school, I get a text message from Ethan explaining Benny and him have a hockey game tonight. He's a bit nervous about actually getting on the ice with Boltz, but thought it might be a good distraction for me from the whole Rory thing. I double check my schedule to make sure I'm not working tonight, and triple check the time the game ends with E. After playing hot potato with yes and no, I decide to go. I find out moments later that Analis is already there and saving a seat for me.

Joshua and I exchanged numbers during lunch, so I get a message from him as well asking if I'm going. When I tell him I am, he decides to come too, but not until he's gotten an hour or two in at the skate park. That part of him I wasn't wrong about. I ask him if he wants me to save a seat for him when I get there, but he says he'll find one on his own. I'm going to look at our meeting as what I should be looking at it as, a unique friendship.

* * *

"Carol! Over here!" Analis shouts, standing in the bleachers and waving me over. I gulp as I start climbing the stairs over to her. One of the main reasons why I don't go to sporting events is because you have to walk over these steep steps and seats just to sit. It's the one thing I hate doing and I have to do it several times depending on how many trips I have to take between the game.

"Shaquisha, my baby looks so good in his jersey!" Analis says when I finally sit down next to her. I smile at her and give a half laugh in response.

"They haven't had any ice time yet, but I'm sure it's coming." She says, still hopeful for them. I give her a look and we both crack up because there's no way either of them are getting in this game.

"Joshua's coming too. But he'll be here later after he's done skating." I announce, watching the scoreboards and familiarizing myself with our team colors. Analis looks at me skeptically and I know exactly what she's thinking.

"It's not like that, we're just friends and we've only met today!" I shout, half laughing at the concept.

"Besides, even if he does think I'm cute….I'm still Rory's girl. He knows that." I remind her, but realizing that within five minutes of my being here I've already said his name.

"He thinks you're cute?" She asks, her jaw somewhat unhinged in shock. I nod in response and scrunch my face as I look away from her and scratch my head.

"Shaquisha! He is bad news, you're going to get feelings whether you want them or not. You have to distance yourself." She warns, playfully hitting me on the arm in a scolding manner.

"I know! I know. Especially right now because Rory is nowhere to be found. But I promise, I am not letting it get there. We're just hanging out today because of the game. I doubt he even sits by me, he's got friends of his own." I say nonchalantly. Shaking my head as I think of the irrational thought, I look back over to the game.

Ethan is off the bench and talking to the coach, every time he says something the coach calls Boltz over to do a move. Our one to three score is slowly climbing with every play that's done by Boltz and Ethan's teamwork. I watch as Ethan gives one final call and Boltz passes the puck over to number eight, then body checks one of the defensive players into the net. The crowd cheers in response as we're now in the lead and I call out Ethan's name in a supportive cheer. Analis screams Benny's name as well, even though he hasn't done anything yet. He waves at us from the bench.

"You know, you're supposed to cheer on the players actually playing." I hear beside me in my ear. I look over and see no one, till I turn around and am almost face to face with Joshua.

"Bet you didn't even see me walk in. I know you didn't cause I waved and it went right over your head." He jokes, half laughing at me.

"I'm invested! Hush up!" I shout, pushing his leg in response and laughing at his teasing.

"Besides, it's called supporting your friends. In case you didn't notice, Ethan was the one calling all of those shots just now and we're in the lead because of them." I defend, still smiling at his smirking face. He laughs it off and I go back to watching the game, feeling Analis' eyes all over me.

* * *

The game is over and we're all on our way home. But I'm still stuck in the bleachers, glued to my phone because I'm getting updated from the group about what I've been missing. Apparently Erica is with Sarah and Rory, going to check out the old cemetery because they want to catch the grave robber in the act. To which they further explain that Sarah was being accused of stealing them all to drink their blood. Rory and Erica were both signed on to keep an eye on her this entire time, even though she had nothing to do with it. I sigh in response, not sure how to process all of this.

"Hey, the game's over. You coming?" I hear. Looking up, I see Joshua standing on the steps and waiting for me as Analis is already blowing Benny kisses through the glass.

"There an after party that I don't know about?" He asks, joking once again. I laugh, but shake my head in response.

"Nah, just my friends finally informing me about why they've been AWOL all day." I admit, closing up my messages and putting my phone in my pocket. He offers me a hand as I almost trip over my own feet walking down the steps. I smile and take it thankfully. His friends call him over and tease him for staying behind to help me, even tossing in a girlfriend taunt.

"We're gonna head back over to the skate park. You wanna join us? I promise it's not as boring as it sounds." He says, chuckling nervously and still holding my hand as we walk down the remainder of the steps.

"There's a place a block away that has killer curly fries we can hit up afterward." He offers, almost winning me over because of my love for curly fries.

"I'd honestly love to go. But I don't think my boyfriend would understand that us hanging out is just as friends. At least until he's met you, that is." I add in, looking him in the eyes and seeing that sharp green. I look down at our hands again and slowly let go, watching him take his and rub the back of his head with it.

"No, you're absolutely right. It was just an offer though, don't worry about it. I'll catch you on Monday?" He adds in, just before he nods his head at me and slowly walks off towards his friends. It's within that moment I feel like I just turned down a date and did not think that would happen.

Analis texts me that she's at Benny's place helping him look for information on a gem that's in Boltz's helmet. I already know what she's going to be doing, taking pictures on her phone of her in Benny's jersey. Much like how she's of no use to me when we're baking cookies. I honestly feel sorry for Benny more times than I'd like to admit.

I'm on my way home when halfway there I get a group chat message from Sarah. Apparently the stone in Boltz's helmet is called The Eye of Zartak. It's power is to bring to life dead limbs into whatever shape you put them in. Boltz, is made up of dead hockey players and is walking around like a normal human being. To make matters even worse, Sarah says the new coach is behind it and that he's already found the brain he wants inside his creation.

Ethan.

I run all the way back to school, tossing my phone in my bag haphazardly. Ethan stayed behind to give the coach some tips about the upcoming season games. The coach would use this time to get Ethan's brain out and there's no one there to help him. Why did no one see this coming?!

When I reach the school's hockey area, it's dimly lit. Only the lights for the ice rink are on and it's so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. I carefully walk across the ice and behind the glass towards the locker rooms and the coach's office. Inside I can hear Mr. Steiner talking to Ethan about how he created Boltz from all the greatest hockey players that ever lived in White Chapel. As I'm about to walk in to save Ethan from the lunatic we have for a hockey coach, I'm slapped in the back of the head with a hard and blunt object. My vision fades out before it blacks out completely.

* * *

I hear my name being called and try to lift my head up to see who it is. Waves of my vision come through like layers in a painting, blotches of color and misshapen figures, until finally an image sticks. Ethan is strapped into a tub, he looks horrible and miserable at the same time. With all of my strength, I nurse the back of my head with one hand and push myself up with the other.

"Carol, quick, before he comes back." Ethan pleads. I wobble over to him and try to shake off the throbbing in the back of my head. As I fight with the straps holding the wooden board onto Ethan and keeping him locked onto the tub, I hear him trying to help me by directing me. But my vision is still too blurry to fully focus on things.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here? A stowaway?" I hear behind me. When I turn, I see Mr. Steiner standing by the stairs that lead to the studio overlooking the ice rink.

"Where have you been hiding?" He asks, walking over to me slowly.

"Now just wait, please, just wait." I plead, trying to move and focus on him at the same time. My vision is getting better, but I'm nowhere near ready for walking at focusing.

"I know what you've been doing and authorities have been called. They should be here any minute." I lie, trying to buy some time until I'm capable of looking to the side without wanting to puke.

"Ethan!" I hear Sarah scream, he calls out to her and she flies into the room. I focus on her long enough to see Mr. Steiner put a helmet onto her head. It's attached to a bunch of wires hooked up to the roof and the minute it touches her head, she starts shaking in place. Within seconds, she's on the ground and I'm left alone again with Ethan and Mr. Steiner.

"There. Now where were we?" He asks, looking from Ethan to me and back again. My vision slowly returns, almost miraculously. There's a small tickle down the back of my neck as I walk over to him. He watches my every move until I'm face to face with him. As I keep eye contact with him, I knee him in the groin and then kick him over so he's a good foot away from E and I.

As I quickly untie the strap around Ethan's right arm, I begin to see why he looked so miserable looking. He's been sitting in a tub full of ice and is chilled completely to the bone. My timing is better off this time, but I still feel slower than I should be. E's about to say something when I hear groaning behind me and some sort of buzzing. Turning around, I see Sarah holding the helmet onto the coach's head as he collapses to the ground.

"Sorry coach, looks like you won't be making the cut." Sarah says, watching him lie on the ground. She quickly runs over to Ethan's other side and takes off the other strap.

"Are you okay?" She asks, her tone soft and caring. We both laugh when we hear Ethan say he's had enough ice time to last him forever.

* * *

Later that night, Sarah brings the remains that were stolen to the vampire council for inspection. With the guy who did all the grave robbing there to help defend her point, they were forced to take her word. Which meant that Erica and Rory were free of babysitting her. Not that it meant Rory would be running to come hang out with me, he hasn't this past week, why should he now? I lie in bed with a slight headache and a bandage on the crown of my head.

When Boltz hit me, it left a nasty cut on the back of my head. Thankfully my hair can cover up the bandage and when my hair is being stupid, a hat guarantees coverage. But it's getting harder to hide all this from my parents. They weren't happy when I came home late tonight, but I got off the hook when I called Ethan to have him confirm we were at his house celebrating as an after party. Thanks for the idea, Joshua.

I'm about to fall asleep when there's a tap at my window. Looking over, I see Rory floating outside my window with a white face and black designs across his cheeks. He looks like Kiss threw up all over him and then tried to fix it with makeup. I slowly get up and walk over to open the window. There's a silence as we look at each other for the first time in almost a week.

"Aren't you going to invite me in?" He asks, looking to me almost apologetically. I step back and watch him climb in with ease. There's so much I want to say, so many things I want to do, but they're all silenced right now.

"I'm sorry. My mom and dad had me on lockdown after I tried boogie boarding indoors. I couldn't use my phone or go online and when I saw you at school, it just felt so weird. Trying to talk to you was so awkward, I was waiting for the conversation where you told me that you were breaking up with me. So I froze you out to prevent it from happening." He admits, biting the inside of his cheek.

"It's only awkward if you make it awkward. I wanted to talk to you so many times this week, do you know how lonely I felt? It felt like you were moving on without telling me that it was over and that's what made it so hard, Rory. Not knowing what we were, if there still was an us." I vent, letting him have all the emotions I'd been bottling up.

"I know. E already called me a durf nerder and Benny hit me on the head to prove it. Not to mention the countless death threats Analis was spewing at me. She's really scary. How are you friends with her?" He asks, making that face I always see when he's nervous or scared. I smile at him, missing this side of him. No, missing him.

He brings me to my bed and I use his chest as my pillow, while he holds me with both hands. I hear him comment on how my bandages were leaking, making me smile. I ask him why he's dressed this way and he explains he heard I was hanging out with an emo kid and thought I was into that now. I laugh as I explain to him that's not what this makeup means and help him wipe it off. He then helps me change my bandages and for the first time I fall asleep with him still here with me.


	15. Episode 6 Part 1

This week our school was putting on a play, I wasn't sure about joining with the actual actors on stage, but I was pretty crafty. I figured that put me in good standards for the costume department. I'd even take stage backgrounds if they let me. But I wanted something normal to help me forget about the heaping pile of supernatural always waiting around in White Chapel. Hopefully it won't interfere with my job after school.

It doesn't look like a big list, but I see lots of familiar names on it and am curious why almost all my friends decided to sign up.

"You really are signing up, I might as well join you. Especially seeing that my boyfriend is already signing up." Analis says, taking the pen from me and signing her name on the list.

"Why is that exactly?" She asks, looking to me with questions in her eyes.

"I don't know. The fact that you're not asking why Erica signed up is also questionable." I state, pointing to Erica's name on the spreadsheet. Analis looks to it with wide eyes and asks me why I think she would join, what her reason could be.

"Honestly? Maybe to make herself a star, because we all know she can't make it to Hollywood." I joke, smirking as I picture an invisible Erica behind the camera for the silver screen.

"Have you seen the newest viral video? I think it's White Chapel's first." Analis asks, pulling out her phone. I shake my head and as we're walking through the halls toward the theatre room, I watch one of the videos she saved and there's a lone guy standing at a bus stop. Nothing happens until out of nowhere he's smeared with orange paint. He drops his briefcase in shock and a voice comes through the speakers, 'Owned by Pranksy!' it sounds familiar, but I can't place it.

"Who is this?" I ask, looking at the screen name. Analis explains how no one knows who he is, he just started uploading one night and now he's blown up almost overnight.

"Do you think it's special effects or editing? Wait! What if it's a vampire?" I ask, my tone hushed on the last question.

"Oh my gosh, that would explain why they don't show up on camera!" She almost shouts. We exchange a look and stop to stare at each other in the middle of the hallway. I hit her shoulder a couple times in excitement, as we both gasp in realization.

"RORY!" We shout. Everyone surrounding us stares at us as we scream this, we both blush as we acknowledge the stares and continue to walk off. As we head to auditions, we now laugh at the videos with our new found knowledge.

Analis and I watch as Erica makes a fool out of herself at auditions and Sarah taking total control over her character. So it came to no surprise when Sunday Clovers was cast as the lead and Erica as the understudy. Erica has death in her eyes as she watches Sunday, we're both trying to contain our laughter. Analis is signed on as backstage help, she'll be helping Benny set up equipment and working the lights. When I offer to help with costumes and stage decorating, Ms. Lofthouse-Oldman-Little nearly jumped me for a hug. I guess decorating and costumes aren't a highly sought after thing in the theatre here.

As we all pile into the auditorium, I see Ethan signed on to be the stage manager. He's currently chatting up Sarah back stage. It instantly makes sense as to why he decided to join, when his name wasn't on the list prior to try outs. Analis makes her way up the stairs with Benny as they talk about who gets to handle what. I head backstage and get costumes together for Sundrop and Rainbeam.

"I'm going to prove to them it was a mistake to try and take my show from me." Sunday says, just as I finish adjusting the costume to her measurements. She has a look of pure hatred on her face, looking past me towards the stage. This can't be the same bubbly girl that was at tryouts, right?

"Prove who wrong, Sunday?" I ask, more out of curiosity than caring. She's only been here about a month, who could have made her this mad? She ignores my question and walks off the step toward the lights and sandbags.

"Sunday? Are you okay?" I call out, watching her disappear from my point of view.

Quickly I text Analis to let her know of Sunday's craziness and ask if she's seen Ethan. I try to put her out of my mind as I sort through the clothes and accessories for Rainbeams' outfit. But with every sequin and needle I jab myself with, all I can think of is that this is more of that supernatural bull crap we're always dealing with. Groaning in frustration, I toss the accessories back into the trunk with a huff and go off looking for Ethan myself.

I'm taking the quickest way to the front of the stage, in the hopes Sunday isn't doing something that'll cause an uproar. On the way there I overhear what sounds like Analis and Benny,

"That's not how it's supposed to be! Look, you set it up over here and it'll reflect ten times more light than whatever spell you think you need to cast." I hear her scream out at him.

"You always do this!" He shouts back, clearly irritated.

"Every time I think you're past the whole eyebrow story, you bring it up again and try to stop me." He adds in, angling the lights toward the stage even more than it was before.

"What's the point in having a girlfriend, if all she's going to do is nag, nag, nag? It's seriously a buzz kill. Even more so than when you blow off the handle over little things I say to other girls." He complains, his anger bubbling up to it's peak.

"Oh yeah?! Well how about I save you the trouble of having one?! Let's see how well you can function working all of this without my help." She snaps, storming off and basically running down the stairs in anger.

"Good luck trying to get someone else to help peel the dead skin off your back, when you sunburn yourself again!" She adds in, exiting the auditorium and groaning in the hallway.

"That was one time!" He shouts, even though she's already left. I watch him throw his hands up in frustration before moving out of view. The last thing I need is them fighting while all this weird stuff is going on. They'll be more likely to get tossed into the cross hairs.

Just as my phone goes off, I hear screams on the stage and go running toward them. There's sandbags everywhere and our lead actress is crushed under some of them. Ethan, Sarah and Ms. LOL are all running to her rescue to try and figure out what happened. But Erica is stepped off to the side, smirking as she realizes we'll need an understudy. Was this her doing? Or Sunday's?

"A part of me still thinks it was Erica's doing that put Sunday out of commission." I blurt out to Analis, watching her fix the position of one of the main lights.

"But Sarah is convinced she's telling the truth, I can't really fight her on that. They've been friends for years, she would be the one to know." I admit, begrudgingly.

Analis hasn't looked up once since I came up here. I clear my throat to get her attention, but she doesn't shift in the slightest. Her hair falls into her face as she wipes the glass around the light bulb and it doesn't deter her concentration. She must still be hung up on the fight with Benny, so I get her attention the only way I know how.

"Oh, hi Benny." I say, looking to her. Instantly, she turns a full 180 and is about to open her mouth to say something, but realizes that Benny is nowhere to be seen.

"I thought that might get your attention." I tease, giving her a small smile. She sighs, going back to what she was doing.

"What do you need, Shaquisha?" She asks, not looking up from her work. Her breath fogs up the glass so she can wipe away any excess oils.

"I'm a bit busy right now, I can't exactly gossip right now." She adds, pointing the light back onto the stage and looking to me.

"What's going on with you and Benny?" I ask bluntly. Her eyes dart away from mine, they search the floor for anything to distract her from the topic I brought up.

"I heard the verbal world war three earlier. Wanna talk about what brought that on?" I inquire, trying to look at her eyes. But her constant shifting and fidgeting preventing me from it.

"I don't want to talk about it. I'll see you at lunch, okay?" She answers, her voice low as she walks past me and toward the exit. I sigh in frustration as that could've gone so much better. As I leave her work area, Benny rounds the corner and we bump into one another.

"Whoa, sorry Carol. These eyes of mine just don't work like they used to." He jokes, giving me one of his chirpy smiles.

"Visiting Analis, I imagine?" He asks, probably to figure out if he has to dodge her or not.

"You just missed her." I explain, backing out of the way to the stairs leading up to the console and lights.

"But yeah, I was trying to gossip with her. Guess I caught her at a bad time or something, she wasn't in the best mood just now." I explain, hoping to get something from him that I couldn't get from her.

"She's a bit…rough around the edges today." He says, his eyes trailing off to the side in awkwardness.

"She took my head off earlier and I thought I was the only one who knew how to do that." He says with a smirk. I chuckle at the joke and give him a small smile.

"So if she's mad at anyone right now, it's me, not you." He adds, putting his hand on my shoulder, just before he turns to start walking up the stairs. I place my hand on top of his as a sign of support, looking up at him.

"Really, Carol?!" Analis snaps at me from the doorway. Benny and I both turn to look at her and give her wide eyes. Does she really think I'm going to try something with her boyfriend when I've got my own?


	16. Episode 6 Part 2

The next day at school, I meet up with Rory, Ethan and Benny in the lounge area where kids go for their free period. Ethan goes into full researcher mode on his laptop, searching into White Chapel high's history with the play we're currently doing. He explains to us that there was a girl who died during the play because a rainbow landed on her head on opening night. Then further explains it might have something to do with the weird stuff that keeps happening with the mirror and Sunday.

"Ethan, you have to help me." Rory says, explaining his current problem with Pranksy. Benny scoffs at the idea that Rory could be someone as cool as Pranksy. I butt in and stick up for him, causing a minor fight between Benny and I that Ethan has to inevitably break up. Almost instantly, I understand why it's so easy for Analis to get into fights with him.

"Ethan! I need you." Sarah says, waving him over to her. He bolts right up and leaves the three of us in the dust as he runs, not walks, to help her. As Rory looks to Benny for help, and is denied, I'm left alone with him again. Slightly insulted that I wasn't asked as a last resort. Only to end up smiling seconds later as Rory paints Benny's face and grabs my hand as he races off.

Rory and I are sitting backstage in the dressing room, the lights for the mirror are still on in preparation for tonight's show in just an hour or so.

"I just need some kind of idea to let the world know I'm Pranksy." He starts, sitting across from me on the floor.

"It seems like ever since this play got put into production, no one has time for me." I watch him pout, then scoot himself away from me.

"So apparently my sitting here, listening to you complain about your struggles, while still finishing up one of the costumes…..means nothing? Good to know." I add in, taking my eyes off him and back onto the dress.

"Maybe Benny will have a change of heart…..even though you did use staining paint on his face." I tease, still stitching in a final layer of patterned cloth.

"Benny won't want to talk to me even if I hadn't painted his face. He's too busy trying to outsmart Analis in their verbal silence. Not to mention he's trying super hard to administer magic stuff to all the lighting and stuff, without her finding out." Rory admits, his head in his hands.

"It's like the married couple got divorced or something. Or like, they're on a really crappy vacation where the toilet paper is like rock salt and the food is always fishy, even though none of it is fish." He rambles on, trying to figure out their problems.

I chuckle at his statement for a moment before answering him finally. He's still staring at the floor with his hands against his face when I say,

"Yeah, he's still fighting with her. They need to kiss and make up already," my laughter coming out a bit strained.

"Do you think they'll be okay?" I ask, blatantly nervous about them.

"I don't know. Benny's never really had a girlfriend like Analis, actually, he's never really had a girlfriend either. Except for Sheila Botner in the second grade, but it was only for a day….and she doesn't remember it…so he could've been lying." As Rory rambles on, I can't stop thinking about this.

"He's been known to do that, especially if it means he gets to win the argument or debatable topic." He continues, before finally looking at me.

Just as Rory is about to speak, a loud thud vibrates behind us and we snap our heads toward it. The mirror on the vanity seems to be glowing. Rory gets up and starts to walk toward it, but I pull him back just before he touches it. We share a look and start to say something, but Sarah and Benny walk in and practically throws us out after proclaiming Ethan is in the mirror.

Rory and I watch as Benny uses a witch's rod to draw an energy of some kind out of the mirror. Sarah then uses her hand to press against the mirror as he says an incantation that manages to get Ethan out. He narrowly misses the splice that happens down the center of the mirror. Analis walks in just in time to see Erica snap at us for cracking her mirror and touches it while a colored mist transfers over to her.

"Erica, watch out." Ethan says, pushing her out of the way as he smashes the mirror with a chair. The glass shatters everywhere and Erica shakes her head in a daze as Benny makes a joke about seven years bad luck.

"I guess I'll just have to shower with your grandma's special soap again." He retorts, giving a small smile before turning his attention over to Erica.

"Erica? Are you okay?" He asks, all of us looking to her quizzically.

"I'm fine. In fact, I'm feeling stronger than ever. I think I'll start the show with the finale." She says in a small voice. One that doesn't belong to the Erica we all know and fear. She strides along past us and Analis is looking from me, to Benny and over to Ethan.

"Babe? I'm gonna need your help again." Benny says, grabbing Analis' hand and pulling her with him. She hesitates a moment, but they lock eyes and she nods her head with a glare. Rory and I keep to the sidelines as Sarah runs after Erica and Ethan runs off in search of a small mirror.

I watch as Sarah threatens Erica and the two are in full out vampire mode. Benny and Analis are fixing up a light up on one of the balcony's side bars. They bicker for a moment, before a switch is flicked and lightening is shot from the light. Analis hands him his book from his bag, he starts reading and Ethan pops up from behind Erica. She turns to look at him as Benny recites the final line and the spirit's soul is transferred over to the mirror Ethan is holding.

Thunderous applause is heard as everyone in the audience thinks this is part of the play. The curtain drops and everyone joins us back in the dressing room, more or less back to normal. Ethan brushes black paint across the mirror to preserve the soul without having it drift into one of us. Erica is seemingly herself again as she wishes for her reflection back.

"Preserving the soul so we can release it later, how eco-friendly." Benny jokes, looking to the three of us. Analis stands next to Rory and I as Ethan explains how the soul can be released after they leave.

"Is Ms. LOL still apologizing to everyone?" He asks, wondering how much longer we have to wait.

"Hey Rory, are you still looking for a way to reveal Pranksy?" I ask, smirking as I get an idea that could expel the both of us. As he nods, I hand him a paint bucket and shove him toward Ms. LOL. The group and I watch as he paints her face and the crowd cheers yet again.

"So does this mean you two are done fighting?" I ask, looking to Benny and Analis. She glares at the two of us and refuses to answer as she enters a silent treatment.

"You did just help him defeat that thing. Even though you said you weren't going to." I remind her, looking to her with a smirk.

"Yeah, and besides babe. You know you missed this too much to stay away forever." Benny teases, puffing out his chest. I roll my eyes and watch her shove him as she storms off, still very pissed off at him.

"What? Is it my breath?" He asks, holding his hand out in front of him and sniffing the air as he breathes into it.

"She'll roll back, I think." I add in, watching my friend leave in a temper. Benny watches after her, with a slightly solemn expression.

"Maybe a cocoa would soften her up?" I offer, tilting my head to look at him. He smiles as he stuffs his book away and follows after her with a determined smile.

"Looks like Benny is going to need a lot more than cocoa to fix things this time." Sarah says, looking from Ethan to me.

"I've never seen her this mad before, are we sure he's going to be able to get her to bounce back from this?" She asks, just as curious as I was earlier.

"I mean, Benny's done a LOT of stupid things before. Are we forgetting the 'Anais' incident?" Ethan adds in, reminding us of Analis' alias when she was a boy.

"I doubt one argument is going to break them apart. Actually, if I had to guess, I'd say that Analis is just milking this because she wants to see him sweat some more. You did just tell him to bribe her with cocoa." He says with a smirk.

We share a knowing smile and I chuckle a bit, more at ease about their future. But out of the corner of my eye, I notice a look from Sarah that I recognize from when we first met. Then, it's gone just as fast as it came. I chalk it up to an overactive imagination because of tonight's charades and brush it off.

Rory returns backstage with Ms. LOL and as she's reprimanding us for changing the play so drastically, he hides behind me. We all apologize and are now banned from working on plays in the future or behind the stage as production staff. That stung a little bit, but it's not like it could be helped. I'd have to tell Analis about this later when we met up again.

We're left alone and start separating to head home with our parents, when the tres amigos all leave for dinner. As I wait by the auditorium doors for Ethan, he was my ride home, a familiar face walks up to me.

"So you did come. I looked for you in the crowd, but when I didn't see you I thought you might've stayed home." Joshua says with a smile. His hand rubbing against the back of his head, slightly tilting his gray beanie.

"I was behind the stage, someone had to be on standby for a costume malfunction." I joke, he laughs at my feeble attempt at comedy.

"Did you bring a date? Or was this a guys night out thing?" I ask, more out of need for conversation than curiosity.

"I don't have a girlfriend." He says, meeting my eyes. There's a slight flush of color on his face and he tries to hide it by answering the second half of my question.

"But if my friends were here, they would've actually enjoyed themselves instead of causing a ruckus because of it being lame." He jokes, letting a nervous laugh escape.

"Can I take you to meet them sometime?" He asks, looking up from the floor to my face again. I'm taken aback by the offer and open my mouth to answer, when he cuts me off.

"Unless you think your boyfriend wouldn't like that either?" I watch him fiddle with the board in his hand.

"Her boyfriend wouldn't mind at all." Rory says beside me. He wraps his arm around me and has a giant smile spread across his face.

"Where are we going?" He wonders, looking between the two of us. Joshua's blush has deepened in color and mine has started to form. It's like Rory has boyfriend senses along with vampire ones.

"To the skate park. We ride out there a lot, I figured while we're out there Carol could see the sights and there's a curly fry place right around the corner. So after we're done riding, we can grab a bite to eat." Joshua says with a nervous expression on his face, his eyes darting from the floor to Rory's face multiple times.

"I've been trying to get her out there for a while now. She always has something better to do though." He jokes, I give a small laugh and look down, trying to not let my cheeks flush anymore.

"Curly fries?! We'll be there!" Rory pipes up, excited at the mention of food. His eyes widen and he grips my shoulder tightly, not able to control his hyperactive nature.

"When should we meet you out there?" He asks, obviously too excited to wait for them.

"Tomorrow? If you're both-" He starts to say, but Rory cuts him off before he can finish.

"We'll be there!" He screams, his voice dominating the auditorium. We've got a handful of parents staring at us now and I now am more embarrassed than I previously was.

This would be an interesting couple of days. I could really use my best friend right now.


	17. Episode 7 Part 1

"Can I get another special over here?" I hear to my left. I'm elbow deep in coffee beans when I quickly finish up an Americano and delve deep into another bag for a scoop of different beans.

"Gonna need that Americano, stat." My coworker shouts. I slide it over to her on the counter top and watch her grab it quickly. It was the lunch time rush, we were swamped.

It doesn't take long for us to find a rhythm that suites the other. An order of fifteen comes in, all a variety of coffees, lattes and specialty drinks. I alternate between the big order and small orders, finding a system that works and getting it done within ten minutes. They all get placed in a giant bag and are given to the customer. By the time it's over, we're both sweating and I have coffee all over my uniform.

"Where did that order of fifteen come from?" I ask, wiping down my station. Between the coffee spills and the beans, they're everywhere.

"We don't get a lot of those, it was different." I add on, curious to know if there's an event I'll be missing.

"It's moleo season." She says indifferently. I turn to look at her, make sure that I heard her right.

"Colleges, schools and even small stores are preparing for the binging they'll be doing." She further explains, organizing her cash register.

"What the hell is a moleo?" I ask, my tone flat and full of disbelief. She looks up from her station and finally gives me her attention.

"Am I supposed to know what that is?" I wonder, my head tilting in further confusion. The corners of her mouth lift up in a smile at my obliviousness.

"It's a type of donut." She explains, almost teasingly toward me.

"Everyone goes crazy for them. So when they finally come out, it's like every man, woman and child for themselves." She continues, shuddering a bit at that last statement. It makes me wonder what bad experience she's had with them.

When I finally make it home, my parents are just getting back from the store.

"Carol! Look what we found, they looked too good to pass up." My mom calls to me, showing me a small box of what looks to be chocolate donut holes.

"They sorta look like dunkin donuts' munchkins. But they only come yearly out here, like Girl Scouts in the US." She says with a confused face.

"Yeah, I heard about them at work today. It's every 'man, woman and child for themselves.' when it comes to those apparently." I explain, quoting my coworker.

"They must be good if they're that hyped up." I defend, already thinking about having them with a morning coffee or midnight snack.

As they finish putting everything away and start on dinner for the night, I head to my room. Only to have my phone ring seconds later.

"CAROL! Tell me you've heard!" Analis screams in my ear on the other end. Just as I'm about to answer, I'm cut off.

"They have CHOCOLATE DONUTS!" She squeals into my ear. I grit my teeth in response, trying to refrain from screaming in agony.

"Yes, Analis, I heard. I gather you bought a couple boxes?" I ask, already knowing the answer.

"You know this isn't going to help your 'breaking out' issue, right?" I offer, reminding her about wanting to fix her skin problem.

"Not relevant, Shaquisha!" She bites, annoyed at my reminder.

"If Benny thinks for one second that he's getting ANY of my moleos, he's got another thing coming." She snaps, growling into the phone.

"Easy, there. Nobody mentioned him, so why did you?" I offer, knowing full well she misses him.

"It's alright to admit that you miss him annoying you…..and his hot cocoa." I tease, knowing full well that she's going through withdrawals. I'm left with a dial tone as she hangs up on me.

"Rude." I say into the empty receiving line. There's a loud thud outside my window, when I turn to look for what made the noise, I'm greeted with my vampire boyfriend.

"Rory, you scared the crap out of me." I groan, hitting him as he climbs through my window. He laughs at my attempts to hurt him and hugs me from behind.

"You ready for the skate park….and curly fries?" He asks with literal drool coming out of his mouth. I sigh in response and roll my eyes at him.

"No offense babe, but you smell like coffee." He says, releasing me and putting distance between us. I give a small laugh and remove my work top, leaving me in just a tank top and my work pants.

"Rory, no offense, but you're kind of an idiot. I work in a coffee shop you derfnerder." I tease, grabbing a long sleeve shirt and throwing it on.

"I didn't realize how late it had gotten or I would've showered when I got home. So you're stuck with me smelling like chai lattes and Americanos." I admit, removing my pants and putting on a pair of jeans.

"Hey! Put some clothes on! This is un ladylike." He shouts, turning away from me and putting his hand over his eyes.

"I thought you were more becoming than this." I hear him mutter in disappointment. I chuckle in response and walk over to remove his hand.

"I'm dressed. I'm also ready to go, so I'll meet you outside. I don't care if you see me in my underwear, Rory. You should really get used to that, otherwise we're going to have a lot more problems in the future." I say, kissing him on the nose. As I throw on a beanie and grab my personal items, he crawls back out my window.

"I still didn't like the way he was looking at you." Rory defends, grabbing a large bucket of curly fries off the counter.

"If he were a vampire I would've thought he was going to bite you." He continues, his chest puffing out a bit in his annoyance.

"It's not like that, he's not like that." I interject, my arm looping with his.

"Besides, I thought you weren't the jealous type? Now all of a sudden you're going to get vibes off of a guy because we're friends?" I poke at him, his face unchanged from the grimace that's currently there.

"It's not that. He just makes me feel uncomfortable." He adds, squirming next to me. His shoulders and back moving inwardly and outwardly to rid himself of a feeling.

"He gets under my skin in a way I don't like. Like the moon…..I still might have my vengeance one day." He says, muttering under his breath and glaring at the sky above us.

"Well there's nothing for you to worry about. It's not like he's got anything on you, I mean, you're dating me…right?" I add, hugging myself closer to him.

"It's not like I'm going anywhere. Are you planning on going anywhere?" I tease, poking his side while he pouts.

"No." He says begrudgingly.

"But I still don't like him." He adds, huffing a bit at the thought of him. I sigh at his stupidity and just hold myself closer to him as we walk. He continues to eat most of the curly fries as we walk without offering me any.

"Hey, Rory?" I ask, his head only turning slightly to face me.

"Why is it that you only drink the blood of animals when you're hunting?" I inquire, my eyes turned away from him.

"I mean, even if they're just snacks, Erica and Sarah both drink human blood all the time. Why don't you?" I blurt out, my curiosity getting the better of me.

"I guess it's just because it's easier to grab an animal, rather than try and find someone who'll give me the time of day." He admits, shrugging it off as though it were nothing.

"Besides, animals are softer than humans. Those little paws, that soft fur and the gamey smell you have when you get that first bite. YUM." He admits, his fangs popping out at the thought.

"Rory, your fangs." I say, tapping my piercing to hint they're out. He quickly hides them back in and shoves a handful of fries in his mouth.

"Okay, well….what about my blood?" I wonder, looking up to him finally.

"Ever since the bedroom incident, you haven't asked me again and I'm kinda offended that my vampire boyfriend would want to drink the blood of a rat rather than bite me." I explain, turning away from him again in embarrassment.

"Well, I haven't brought it up again cause I thought you were still mad at me." He defends, shuffling his feet as he stands us in place.

"But there are days when you're really active in gym and all I hear is your heart pumping, and nothing makes me want to bite you more." He admits, giving me a devilish smirk.

"I might actually kill you, but I think I can handle it." He adds, that impish grin returning.

"We're calling Sarah." I say, giving him a look. He smiles and as we start walking back through town, we both notice a lack of people on the streets.

"Is it normally this dead around here? It's not that late is it?" I ask, more scared than I'd like to admit.

"No. Actually, the dead ones are probably the only ones here." He says, his tone serious but not enough for me to take him that way.

"I'll see if Benny and Sarah are dealing with this as well." He adds, leaving me to call them both.

Where could everyone have gone? Is this like that mist from the first week of school? Whatever it is, we're not safe until Ethan and Benny can pinpoint what's going on around here.


	18. Episode 7 Part 2

The next day at school, Ethan and Benny are talking in the middle of the hallway. With Analis just behind me, I link arms with her and walk rapidly toward them. Almost instantly she sees them and tries to back out of it, but I hold onto her tightly and wave to them with my other hand.

"Benny! Ethan!" I shout, catching their attention.

Analis about rips the skin off my arm and hand trying to pry me off. But we're already right in front of them, her stance stiff and her face just as rigid when we share our greetings. Benny's face reading just as awkward as the air around us. Ethan and I try to defuse the tension by talking about the students rapidly leaving school. But it's very obvious that Analis' and Benny's minds are a million miles away from this conversation.

"Where is everyone going?" Ethan asks Principal Hicks. We watch as he picks up a moleo and heads away from his microphone in his office.

"Is there some sort of field trip we weren't told about?" Ethan inquires, trying to bring reason to this madness happening around us.

"No, they're going home. Classes are cancelled today." Mr. Hicks explains. When Benny asks the reasoning behind them being cancelled, Mr. Hicks further explains,

"There's no teachers. They all just picked up and left." taking a small swig of his coffee.

"Quite rude if I do say so myself, even after I bought them moleos for the faculty meeting. Oh well, at least they left me one." He continues, taking a bite out of his donut.

The four of us watch as our principal drops his coffee and donut, says goodbye and walks off in a trance like state. Analis and I share a look that screams 'what the fuck?' while Ethan and Benny look to one another as well. Before any of us have a chance to speak, Benny and Analis are both tossing boxes of donuts out of their bags. Analis holds one in her hands, staring at it with a sullen expression on her face.

"NO!" Benny screams, reaching for the donut in her hand.

"Give me that!" He screams, heading for her with his arms outstretched. She quickly diverts from him and runs off in the opposite direction. The two are running down the halls, him trying to save her from herself and Analis making things messier than need be.

"I think it's time to do some research on our friendly neighborhood mole troops and their leader." I suggest, watching our friends in the distance. Ethan watches as well, agreeing with me and offering to visit Benny's grandma.

"Hopefully it'll help to put some ease to Analis' mind as she gives up her meaning for life." I say, referring to her addiction to chocolate donuts. It dawns on me that she's lucky she hadn't gotten into them yet. Finding myself wondering if she was hoping to save them for a special treat with herself and Benny later.

* * *

"What do you mean your sister's missing and your parents are gone?!" I scream into the phone, rubbing my temple.

"Yes, I realize you have no control over what your family eats. But why must you inform me of these things if there's nothing I can do about it?" I ask, waiting for Ethan's response through the phone.

"Yeah, I figured you'd leave me in stunned silence." I tease, waiting for a sarcastic comment but never getting one.

"Ethan?" I ask, listening for him.

When I never got a reply, I gathered up my boyfriend and Benny to go check on him. Sarah and Erica came along to see if Ethan had anything in his freezer they could drink. They were highly disappointed when they found out all he had was meat and none of it was human. What they would've done with the coagulated blood inside that human meat…..I don't want to know.

"We have to find my sister, before that rugrat gets a hold of her first…..hey, cool tails." Ethan says, after Benny explains about the clues they found at his grandmother's house. Both Sarah and Erica gasp in shock as no one told them they were both sporting rat tails.

"You didn't think to warn them that they left your grandmother's house with TAILS?!" I snap, totally annoyed with Benny and Rory's crap.

"Just what did you think was going to happen when you fed them random potions?!" I scream, looking to both of them. They look to each other in a confused and scared manner.

"I was hungry! Mr. Lunchy wasn't big enough and I haven't found another one." Rory pouts, crossing his arms in a child like manner.

"Do you think the pet store still has their shipment of hamsters and gerbils in?" He asks, looking to me and Benny for an answer. Ethan already out the door and walking toward the other side of town.

"You two are SO DEAD!" Erica screams, before storming off in a fury with Sarah just behind her.

"If I wasn't so weak, you'd be coughing up the dirt from my boots for weeks to come." She threatens as she turns on her heel after Ethan. I stand in shock at the tone of voice she uses and remind myself yet again to not piss her off.

* * *

"OW! _It's just like sandpaper._ " Benny screams, after Erica hits him in the eye with her tail. We're all lingering off on the side of the graveyard, hours later from Ethan's house, stalking the Moleo troop leader and the rest of the children of Whitechapel.

"What's our next plan of action?" He asks, looking to Ethan for a plan. Not sure how Benny and Rory survived most of their school years without Ethan's almost fool proof planning.

"How are you two feeling? Any better?" Ethan asks Sarah and Erica. They look to each other before Sarah replies,

"Better, but not well enough to fight." with a somber and weak expression.

"Okay, then you get those kids out of here. I'm getting my sister." Ethan says, placing a hand on Benny's chest for assistance.

Analis and I are left behind as backup while Ethan and Benny distract Muldvaarp, with Rory not too far behind them. Sarah and Erica use their super strength to hold back the rest of kids so they can't single file walk their way into the door in the floor. As Benny gets stuck on his words while saying the incantation, she zaps him with her key and he falls to the floor.

Rory takes his place and is shot multiple times, each time causing him to cry out in pain. But Ethan is using this distraction to try and get Jane away from Muldvaarp. On the final hit Rory falls to the ground and holds onto Jane, Ethan grabs the staff and tries to pull it away from her. Both Rory and Benny are crying out in pain. As Ethan lets go of the staff, Muldvaarp falls backward into her own door. Her true colors revealing as monster like hands and eyes unravel. The door is slammed shut and disappears, leaving very scared and confused kids in it's wake.

"Benny!" Analis screams, running out of her hiding spot now that the danger is gone.

"Are you okay?" She asks, kneeling by his side as he whines about needing a nurse with a vast medical knowledge.

"Let's get you home and we can eat chocolate donuts and hot chocolate, maybe you just need a comfort pick me up." She says, helping him off the ground.

"No…chocolate…..donuts." He says weakly. She releases him so he falls to the ground again and screams in agony.

"Okay….just not moleos." He corrects himself, groaning as she helps lift him up again. He apologies repeatedly for his actions throughout the week and doesn't bother to look at her.

"I'm really sorry. I don't know what I was thinking, it was Rory's fault." He tries to say.

"Hey!" Rory screams from the ground.

"Oh I know you are, but you and I both know it wasn't Rory who did this." Analis defends, holding up her boyfriend with one arm while he puts the other around her.

"You're an idiot and I don't know why, but I forgive you and I love you, you stupid derfnerder. Just know if you pull this crap again, you'll be feeling worse pain than this." She says, walking him off in the distance. His home calling them in the distance, as he nods rapidly in agreement with her.

"What can I do?" I ask Rory. He groans in response as Erica and Sarah help divvy up the kids and start taking them home. As Ethan stands by explaining what happened to Jane, I dig out the small knife I brought with for protection and slice my arm.

"Open your mouth." I say, watching him look at me in confusion.

I bring up my arm to his mouth and watch the fangs immediately pop out. He tries to grab hold of my arm but is in too much pain to use them. A frenzy takes over as his eyes glaze over and sink into a dark gold color. I wince at the pain, but watch as his strength returns and he grips onto me. His body lifting into a sitting position as he feeds on my arm.

"Ethan…..a little help here." I say weakly, my vision getting blurry from the lack of blood.

"Rory…" I blurt out, before fainting into him. He's still feeding into me when I pass out and fall into Ethan as he yells at Rory.

* * *

When I wake up later in my room, Rory is playing with my curling bandage and inhaling the aroma that wafts up with every touch.

"What are you doing?" I ask, watching him look at me with a derpy smile on his face.

"Waiting for you to wake up. I'm hungry." He says, his fangs popping out in thought of receiving a meal.

"We're so calling Sarah before you get your next meal time." I say, looking to him exasperated with his crazy appetite. I guess feeding my vampire boyfriend is going to be a new normal for me.


	19. Episode 8 Part 1

"Are you sure you're not going to regret missing out on the field trip?" Joshua asks, sliding over a stack of papers he's been printing.

"I mean, this will technically be the first time you're seeing the White Chapel museum." He teases. I smirk, shaking my head at his comment.

"Actually, I've been to the museum. On three? Separate occasions?" I say, questionably.

"I try to go more often, but between work, school and just life in general, I don't get to do it much." I add on, looking up to him with a small smile.

There's a comfortable silence as we pack up and leave the computer lab. We're both holding a stack of papers asking for help in the fundraising and planning of the upcoming fall festival. I'd ask the girls and Ethan with his friends, but something tells me they'll be too busy. Rory is always willing to help, but his attention span can get the better of him. Which is why I tend to hang out with Josh more.

Ever since Benny's grandma started teaching Analis how to read the book of spells, I've been losing her too. She's been trying to practice every night. She reads a whole section, writing out her favorites and adding them to one of her journals. But whenever she tries to say them out loud, nothing happens. We both know it's because she has no Wiccan energy in her system, but she keeps trying.

"I'm supposed to have a party at my house soon. Can I count on you to come?" He asks, opening the door to the planning committee room. Inside is a bunch of girls, all hovered over a small desktop as they plan what the ballots will look like.

"Depends on the date, but I think so. Can Rory come?" I ask, always thinking about my fangy boyfriend. He won't admit it, but he's a little jealous over my friendship with Josh and it's very obvious when they're in the same room together.

"I don't think he likes me much." He says, placing the papers on one of the empty tables. As I start to put mine down he helps lift it over to be where his is lined up.

"There's just something about him, I can't wrap my head around it but he makes it very obvious." He laughs, rubbing the back of his neck in nerves.

"He's just awkward. It's not you, I swear. Rory just has a weird way of expressing his emotions when he's around new people." I lie. Everyone and their grandmother knows it's Josh, but Rory is extremely awkward around new people.

"I promise, he's getting better. You just have to deal with his eccentricities until he knows you better." I offer, tilting my head to get a better look at him.

"So long as he stops making those corny vampire jokes." He adds with a questioning face.

"They died with the whole Dusk phase." We both laugh, realizing he does come up with some horrid jokes. Especially the one about draining with blood types….it's not his best work.

We shake on it in agreement and he lingers with his handshake for a moment to long. I smile and let go, before moving to look toward the stack of papers the girls have printed up. Noticing the sudden stares by them as they all seemed to have looked up from the desktop to witness our exchange. One of the girls is the class president, so I'm sure it's going to be all over the lunchroom gossip when the morning classes come back from the trip. Rory is not going to be happy to hear about this.

* * *

When lunch rolled around I thought everyone would be talking about the incident with Josh and I. But everyone was too busy fawning over the new guy that showed up. He didn't look like the rest of the guys in this town, so he's got to be some sort of exchange student. His tan skin, flawless physique and almost model-esque facial structure made him an instant favorite among the girls. But the only girl he had his eyes on was Sarah, making him instantly hated by Ethan.

"I'm telling you, we have to do something about him. For Sarah's sake, of course." He adds in last minute, trying to avoid suspicion from himself.

"I just don't want her getting hurt." He continues. That last part seeming more genuine than his previous statement.

"Is there something I should know about the new guy?" I ask, knowing there must be something to stir this sudden over protectiveness.

"He's not like, going to suck my soul into the depths of hell if I get too close, right?" I wonder, laughing softly at the absurdity of my proposal.

It takes Benny and Rory's silence and shared look of concern to tell me that I might not be too far off.

"Are you serious?!" I yell in a whisper.

"How in the hell did you let him onto school grounds?!" I ask, more so pissed than curious.

The two share an equally guilty look on their face and Benny rubs the back of his neck in nerves.

"Well, you see. What happened was-" He starts, but is soon interrupted by Analis sneaking up behind him and jumping onto his back. He's soon overwhelmed and almost falls over with her on top of him. But he manages to steady himself, while grabbing hold of his spider monkey girlfriend.

"Hi, babe." He says in a hoarse whisper as her arms are a bit too tight around his throat.

"Benny wabbit, did you forget to conjure me up a hot cocoa today?" She asks, very aware she's slightly choking him.

"Or were you trying to make it count when you finally saw me?" She adds, her face giving a devilish smile and his eyes screaming for help.

"How-could I- forget?" He manages to squeak out, before very softly reciting the spell to make a hot cocoa appear. She releases him and takes a sip, kissing him on the cheek as she sighs and asks why we're all huddled outside the lunchroom.

"Your boyfriend and our idiotic friend let another member of the undead enter school grounds." I say, crossing my arms in annoyance.

"Tell me why I shouldn't kick them into the next dimension?" I offer, hoping for Analis to talk some sense into me. But before she can speak, another voice speaks up.

"Sounds fun, can I help? My morning has already been draining, I could use a refresher." Erica says, licking her fangs for emphasis on her statement.

"Unless of course you're referring to these derfnerders, in which case you're on your own." She recants, looking into the lunchroom for the first time.

"Who's the hottie Sarah's flirting with?" Erica asks, eyeing up the new guy with a devilish smirk playing on her thin lipped mouth.

"He's really cute and really into Sarah." She admits, sizing up the situation immediately.

"Flirting?" Ethan asks, his voice cracking a bit in worry. It takes everything in me not to chuckle at the sound, but I refrain and find Analis struggling to do the same.

"Is she really flirting? How can you tell?" He wonders, looking to Erica like a lost puppy. I'd find it pathetic if it weren't for the fact Ethan makes it look so cute.

"Boys really are clueless." Erica scoffs under her breath.

"It's totally obvious. Just look at them, Sarah's flirting up a storm." She continues, motioning toward Sarah who twirls her hair around her finger. The defeat in Ethan's eyes is burning as he flies through the lunchroom doors to call out to her.

* * *

Later, I'm lying in Rory's bed after school and he's telling me about the family of squirrels he found living behind the school's dumpsters.

"Rory, as much as this conversation seems very interesting, can we talk about something else?" I ask, not wanting to know what he did to them after he found them. He stares at me for a moment, before agreeing.

"Sure, like what?" He wonders, lying on the bed next to me.

"Want to talk about my mummy collection?" He asks, getting more excited as he looks at me. I start to cut him off before I realize what he's said and look at him skeptically. He gets up from the bed and opens his closet to dig out his small collection of mummified animals.

"Rory?! What is wrong with you?! You can't just go around mummifying things!" I shout, forgetting his parents are just downstairs.

"You have to set them free, right now!" I shout, reaching for the animals. He dodges me and pushes through my attempts, knocking a bunch of things over in the process.

"Leave Mr. Kitty alone!" He shouts, holding the cat above his head and out of my reach. His face very hurt by my sudden abrasiveness.

"Mr. Kitty doesn't want to play with you!" He insists, taking off at the speed of light and leaving me alone in his mess of a room.

"Rory, Carol? Are you two alright in there?" Rory's mom asks through his closed bedroom door. I look around the room in the hopes

he's appeared again, but he's still missing.

"Your father and I heard a lot of commotion downstairs, what's going on in there?" She wonders, knocking again in the hopes she'll get our attention.

"Everything's fine, Mrs. Keaner! Rory just got a little too excited over today's lesson plans in history class. We'll try to keep it down!" I shout, hoping it'll reach her on the other side of the door. My response seems to have appeased her as I don't hear anything else afterwards. But now I have no idea how I'm going to stop my boyfriend from mummifying everything he sees.


End file.
